Source: Asia Development Bank
ADB support in education and health care will be critical in developing Uzbekistan’s human capital. This year, ADB plans to commit to a new project involving science, technology, engineering, and math in secondary schools to equip students with relevant skills to succeed in an evolving and diverse labor market.
Updated yearly, this ADB Fact Sheet provides concise information on ADB’s operations in the country and contact information.
Source: Deutsche Bundesbank in English
The interview was conducted by Deepshikha Sikarwar & Vinay Pandey.
How do you see US president Donald Trump’s election weighing in on the entire climate debate?
We are central bankers and supervisors, so we are non-political. We are data-dependent and science-based. We are here together to discuss the impact of climate and nature-related risks on our economies. Talking about climate change in general, there are two major risks: physical risks; meaning increasing numbers of droughts, floods, hurricanes and wildfires. And transition risks, which are the costs and consequences of the transition to net zero.
If climate policy falls short then, of course, economic and financial risks will increase. That’s what central banks must look at. We analyze the data and see what kind of impact climate change has on the economy. That’s our job. We must deal with these risks, and we will address them, also towards governments.
What does the withdrawal of the US Federal Reserve mean for NGFS and its agenda?
The NGFS was founded at the end of 2017. At that time, we were only eight members. Now we are 144. The Fed, as you just mentioned, left in January. Except for the US, none of the members have exited so far. Instead, thirteen new members have joined since I took over as NGFS Chair at the start of 2024. So, we are still a growing organization.
And our agenda stays the same, because it has nothing to do with the exit of one member. If we see deregulation, if we see climate being taken off the policy agenda, then we might see increasing physical risk, meaning an acceleration of climate change. And that might mean that we even become more vocal on the risks we see.
How do you see India’s progress? What more needs to be done?
It’s not up to me to judge the stance and actions of our colleagues from the Reserve Bank of India. I just mentioned our latest update on the long-term scenarios about GDP being 15 % lower, worldwide, than in a world without climate change. For India, the GDP loss is even bigger. If the world keeps its current policies unchanged, global temperatures are expected to rise by three degrees Celsius (on average). And this could cost India roughly 19 % of GDP by 2050, compared to a world without climate change. So, for India, we show that climate change can have even more serious consequences than elsewhere. And, at the same time, the scenarios show that India is among those countries who would benefit the most from a global transition towards net zero emissions.
You’ve said your actions are data dependent. What is the data telling us in terms of the economic impact of climate change? Because there is also a pushback.
We are analytical powerhouses. Our climate scenarios are our flagship product. We have set up different long-term scenarios. For example, a current policy scenario or a fragmented world one, where climate policy is delayed, divergent and/or insufficient across the globe. Or a scenario where policy would bring us to a Paris-aligned world. We look at what those different climate scenarios mean in economic terms, for GDP, inflation, productivity, and so on.
The fifth vintage of our long-term climate scenarios was published at the start of November last year. It told us that under the current policies scenario, global GDP will be 15 % lower globally in 2050 than it would be without climate change. This is a striking number, and in fact we have reason to believe that it doesn’t even show the full picture, because we do not yet have a full set of data. It does not reflect, for example, future sea level rises, or the kind of climate migration that we might see. When we have more data, we will get more insights, and the results might even change.
What has the conversation been like at the plenary in the backdrop of the US exit and what is the assessment of the progress made so far?
We’ve never seen such a strong commitment as we see here in India today. More than 100 people from over 60 countries came from all around the world to be here in person. Another 100 people participated virtually. We’ve never had so many senior level representatives from central banks and financial supervisors. We have more than 25 governors or deputy governors here in India at our annual meeting.
What we’ve reflected on today is how political headwinds, deregulation, impact our work. And our work stays the same, because we are non-political animals, and we stick to our mandates. With so many central banks from all over the world in our network, we all have different mandates. In emerging markets or developing countries, the mandates are often not as narrow as they are in, for example, Europe. So, we do have members with broader mandates. That allows them to do different things, such as promoting green finance or other financial sector development.
Most central banks have initiated some sort of action on tackling climate change and its economic impact. What is your assessment of the progress and what more is needed?
With 144 members from all over the globe, there are members at completely different stages, depending on when they started and how big their capacities are. Some members are very advanced, like the French, the Dutch, the UK, and there are those who have just started or are so small that they barely have capacity.
What are the advanced central banks doing? They have started with climate stress testing in the banking sector. For example, in Europe, we have already done a few climate stress tests. In India, Brazil and many countries in Africa, you see that climate change strongly affects food prices. We also see, in some African countries for example, that energy prices are significantly affected by climate change. We cannot rely on past data or experiences; we need a forward-looking perspective. There’s a lot of uncertainty and non-linearity. So, we must work in terms of scenarios.
When the NGFS was set up in December 2017, there were some central banks who thought, “oh my god, there’s climate change and we do not know at all whether this will affect our work, our mandates”. We thought, “this might be such a big threat that it’s better to collaborate, put together all the resources we have and to see what will come out”. This is why the NGFS was set up. Over the years, we have not only realized that climate change really matters to the economy but also confirmed that it affects our mandates.
The whole idea of this network is that we share our knowledge amongst our members. This is the benefit of being a member of the NGFS. And we also produce public goods like the scenarios mentioned, which can be used by financial sector players and policymakers beyond the network.
Different governments have different commitments to climate change and central banks have different mandates. Given that, how effective can this body be?
Climate policy is not part of our mandate. What governments do is another thing. Of course, our analysis shows that if governments take less action on climate, it will have a huge impact on the economy, often also on inflation.
You are right, central banks globally have a wide range of different tasks and mandates. But this is also the beauty of our network. 144 different organisations learn from each other. Many members – for example emerging markets – have a lot in common with each other. These countries often form groups among peers so that they can share experience and best practice.
Any thinking on short-term scenario mapping?
We will soon publish our short-term scenarios with a time horizon of three to five years, hopefully in the first half of the year. We think it is important to show what will happen within this time horizon.
Not many care about 2050 and 2100. Not many of us work over this time horizon. If you are a CEO, your contract lasts 3‑5 years. If you’re a politician, you want to be re-elected within 3‑5 years. A scenario which tells you what might happen in 2050, of course, really matters for human beings. But, to tell the story to someone who thinks short term, you need also short-term scenarios.
© The Times Group. All rigths reserved.
Source: China State Council Information Office
While blueberry bushes in most parts of China are just beginning to bloom, early-ripening varieties in southwestern Yunnan Province are already being harvested.
Farmers are currently working tirelessly to pick and pack the fresh berries, which swiftly make their way to markets across China and beyond.
Originally native to North America, blueberries have found a second home in China.
In 2024, the country’s blueberry cultivation area surpassed 73,000 hectares, yielding around 500,000 tonnes of berries, making China one of the fastest-growing blueberry producers in the world. Yunnan Province, with its ideal climate and extended growing season, has emerged as a leading production hub, contributing about 30 percent of the national output.
Thanks to its unique geographical conditions, abundant sunlight, significant temperature variations between day and night, Yunnan offers an optimal environment for blueberry cultivation. “Yunnan is a natural habitat for blueberries,” said He Jiawei, head of the Institute of Alpine Economic and Botany, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Science.
The province is home to 46 wild blueberry species — more than half of China’s total, making it one of the best production areas worldwide.
The city of Mengzi in Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture is home to over 2,300 hectares of greenhouse-grown blueberry cultivation space, generating over 3 billion yuan (about 418.48 million U.S. dollars) in revenue and improving incomes and livelihoods for more than 20,000 local farmers.
Min Hongwei set up a 12-hectare blueberry plantation base in Mile, another city in Honghe, last year. “During peak harvest season, our workforce jumps to over 150 people, most of whom are local villagers. They can earn at least 150 yuan per day, and some make as much as 300 yuan,” he said.
Yunnan’s blueberry boom has attracted over 100 domestic and international companies to Honghe, creating jobs for more than 100,000 people. According to the province’s agricultural department, Yunnan’s blueberry cultivation area reached 16,660 hectares in 2024, producing 171,000 tonnes with an estimated industry value of 17 billion yuan.
While Chinese blueberries were initially grown for domestic consumption, they are now making their mark on the international stage.
Chen Canling, sales manager of Anmei, an agriculture and technology company, said the company had successfully entered the Malaysian market this year.
“To meet export standards, we’ve implemented precision management throughout the supply chain from harvesting techniques to packaging and international logistics,” Chen said. “Our goal is to export 300 tonnes of blueberries this year.”
“Every four days, we airfreight two tonnes of blueberries to Dubai,” said Wang Rui, chairman of Fengji, an agricultural development company, adding that customers in Dubai can enjoy fresh blueberries from Yunnan in about 40 hours.
China’s blueberry exports are rapidly gaining momentum. According to Kunming Customs, in 2024, the customs office in Mengzi supervised the export of 1,425 tonnes of blueberries, accounting for over half of China’s total blueberry exports and making it the country’s top blueberry exporter.
“Since China first exported homegrown blueberries to Russia in 2020, they have reached more than 10 countries and regions, highlighting the immense market potential of Chinese blueberries,” said Li Yadong, a professor at Jilin Agricultural University.
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)
Press Release
4BIO Capital Portfolio Company Araris Biotech to be Acquired by Taiho Pharmaceutical for up to USD 1.14 billion
London, United Kingdom, 17 March 2025 – 4BIO Capital (“4BIO” or “the Group”), an international venture capital firm unlocking the treatments of the future by investing in advanced therapies and other emerging technologies, today announces that its portfolio company, Araris Biotech AG (“Araris” or “the Company”), a Swiss oncology biotech company developing next-generation antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (“Taiho Pharmaceutical”). The acquisition follows a research collaboration between Taiho Pharmaceutical and Araris signed in November 2023 and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.
Under the terms of the agreement, Taiho Pharmaceutical will pay a USD 400 million upfront, with the potential for additional milestone payments of up to USD 740 million, and for a total amount of up to USD 1.14 billion.
Araris has been an investment out of 4BIO Capital Fund II, and the 4BIO team is proud to have actively supported the fast development and acquisition since the initial investment in 2020. In early 2020, 4BIO Capital recognised the significant potential of next-generation ADCs, however came to the conclusion that linker technologies needed to be improved to take the field to the next level. The 4BIO team subsequently identified Araris as the best-in-class linker-payload ADC platform to address the shortcomings of current generation ADCs. The Company’s AraLinQ™ technology enables the attachment of multiple, synergistic cancer-fighting payloads to a single antibody in an efficient one-step process, whilst ensuring long-term stability and safety of the resulting ADC, as well as increased antitumour effect compared to conventional ADCs. 4BIO Capital supported the company in the development of AraLinQ™ and its proprietary pipeline, leading its Series A in 2022 and supporting the company through multiple large pharma partnerships both as an investor and from the Board with Managing Partner Dima Kuzmin as Chairman, and Brian McVeigh and Dr Therese Liechtenstein as Board Observers.
Araris is advancing three products for the treatment of haematological and solid tumours developed using its unique AraLinQ™ technology, all of which are currently in the preclinical stage. These products are anticipated to enter into clinical trials between 2025 and 2026 and will benefit from Taiho Pharmaceutical’s clinical development expertise.
Dr Dmitry (Dima) Kuzmin, Managing Partner at 4BIO Capital and Chairman of Araris, commented, “The success of Araris is a perfect example of the 4BIO Capital playbook. We identified the technological hurdle that needed to be overcome to empower an up-and-coming drug class, identified the best science and the people to solve it and, alongside Araris’ management team, supported the company to secure multiple pharma partnerships, develop its own pipeline and now become part of the Taiho group. This acquisition confirms Araris’ position as one of the most exciting ADC companies in the market and has the potential to return over two times the fund to 4BIO Ventures II investors, further validating our science-driven, high conviction seed investment strategy.”
Dr Dragan Grabulovski, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Araris added, “We sincerely appreciate the support of Dima and the entire team at 4BIO in shaping our company, advancing our science, and helping us reach this important milestone. It’s the kind of investor that brings not only money to the table but also valuable strategic guidance, a network of industry connections, and a shared vision for transforming cancer treatment. Araris has developed a unique ADC technology that delivers different cancer-fighting drugs directly to tumours with high precision. This approach allows multiple treatment methods to work together at the same time while reducing harmful side effects. We are excited to join forces with Taiho Pharmaceutical whose deep expertise in oncology will be instrumental in accelerating the clinical development of our promising ADC candidates for both haematological and solid tumours.”
Philippe Fauchet OBE, Venture Partner at 4BIO Capital added, “We are delighted to see a seed investment we made in Europe find a skilled partner in a pioneering Japanese pharma company and are very happy to have facilitated the closer partnership. This deal further validates our strategy of building strong bridges between the Japanese and European biotech and pharma companies, which we believe will bring significant benefits to both ecosystems.”
Details of the acquisition can be found in the press release from Araris and Taiho Pharmaceutical here.
– End –
Contacts
| 4BIO Capital | +44 (0) 203 427 5500 info@4biocapital.com |
| ICR Healthcare Amber Fennell, Jonathan Edwards, Kris Lam |
+44 (0)20 3709 5700 4biocapital@icrhealthcare.com |
About 4BIO Capital
4BIO Capital (“4BIO”) is an international venture capital firm focused on investing in advanced therapies, including genomic medicines and other emerging technologies, to unlock the treatments of the future. 4BIO’s objective is to invest in, support, and grow early-stage companies developing treatments in areas of high unmet medical need, with the ultimate goal of ensuring access to these potentially curative therapies for all patients. Specifically, it looks for viable, high-quality opportunities in cell and gene therapy, RNA-based therapy, targeted therapies, and the microbiome. The 4BIO team comprises leading advanced therapy scientists and experienced life science investors who have collectively published over 250 scientific articles in prestigious academic journals including Nature, The Lancet, Cell, and the New England Journal of Medicine. 4BIO has both an unrivalled network within the advanced therapy sector and a unique understanding of the criteria that define a successful investment opportunity in this space. For more information, connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter @4biocapital and visit www.4biocapital.com.
About Araris Biotech AG
Araris Biotech is a leading independent company pioneering the future of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and redefining the entire paradigm of targeted cancer therapy and beyond. Araris’ vision is a world without chemotherapy and its proprietary conjugation and groundbreaking multi-payload technology represents a quantum leap forward in ADC design, enabling the transformation of any antibody into an ADC with the goal of better safety and efficacy. By enabling the attachment of multiple, synergistic cancer-fighting payloads to a single antibody in an efficient one-step process, Araris is creating a new generation of smart missiles that deliver the potency of combination chemotherapy in a targeted fashion in order to tackle the persistent challenges of cancer resistance. Araris’ investors include 4BIO Capital, b2venture, Pureos Bioventures, Redalpine, Schroders Capital, VI Partners, Wille AG, Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation and Samsung Ventures.
For more information about our science and pipeline, please visit https://www.ararisbiotech.com
About Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Taiho Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. (https://www.otsuka.com/en/), is an R&D-driven specialty pharma focusing on the fields of oncology and immune-related diseases. Its corporate philosophy takes the form of a pledge: “We strive to improve human health and contribute to a society enriched by smiles.” In the field of oncology, in particular, Taiho Pharmaceutical is known as a leading company in Japan for developing innovative medicines for the treatment of cancer, a reputation that is rapidly expanding through their extensive global R&D efforts. In areas other than oncology, as well, the company creates and markets quality products that effectively treat medical conditions and can help improve people’s quality of life. Always putting customers first, Taiho Pharmaceutical also aims to offer consumer healthcare products that support people’s efforts to lead fulfilling and rewarding lives. For more information about Taiho Pharmaceutical, please visit https://www.taiho.co.jp/en/
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cameron Webb, Clinical Associate Professor and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney
A second man has died from Japanese encephalitis virus in New South Wales on March 6, the state’s health authorities confirmed on Friday. Aged in his 70s, the man was infected while holidaying in the Murrumbidgee region.
This follows the death of another man in his 70s in Sydney last month, after holidaying in the same region in January.
Japanese encephalitis virus has also been detected for the first time in mosquitoes collected in Brisbane’s eastern suburbs, Queensland health authorities confirmed on Saturday.
With mosquito activity expected to increase thanks to flooding rains brought by Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, it’s important to protect yourself from mosquito bites.
Japanese encephalitis is one of the most serious diseases that spreads via mosquitoes, with around 68,000 cases annually across Southeast Asia and Western Pacific regions.
The virus is thought to be maintained in a cycle between mosquitoes and waterbirds. Mosquitoes are infected when they feed from an infected waterbird. They then pass the virus to other waterbirds. Sometimes other animals, and people, can be infected.
Pigs are also a host, and the virus has spread through commercial piggeries in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. (But it poses no food safety risk.)
Feral pigs and other animals can also play a role in transmission cycles.
Most people infected show no symptoms.
People with mild cases may have a fever, headache and vomiting.
In more serious cases – about one in 250 people infected – people may have neck stiffness, disorientation, drowsiness and seizures. Serious illness can have life-long neurological complications and, in some cases, the infection can be life-threatening.
There’s no specific treatment for the disease.
Outbreaks of Japanese encephalitis had occurred in the Torres Strait during the 1990s. The virus was also detected in the Cape York Peninsula in 1998.
There had been no evidence of activity on the mainland since 2004 but everything changed in the summer of 2021–22. Japanese encephalitis virus was detected in commercial piggeries in southeastern Australia during that summer.
This prompted the declaration of a Communicable Disease Incident of National Significance. At the time, flooding accompanying the La Niña-dominated weather patterns and a resulting boom in mosquito numbers, and waterbird populations, was thought responsible.
The virus has spread in subsequent years and has been detected in the mosquito and arbovirus surveillance programs as well as detection in feral pigs and commercial piggeries in most states and territories. Only Tasmania has remained free of Japanese encephalitis virus.
Human cases of infection have also been reported. There were more than 50 cases of disease and seven deaths in 2022.
Cases of Japanese encephalitis have already been reported from Queensland in 2025.
Due to concern about Japanese encephalitis virus and other mosquito-borne pathogens, health authorities around Australia have expanded and enhanced their surveillance programs.
In Queensland, this includes mosquito monitoring at a number of locations, including urban areas of southeast Queensland. Mosquitoes collected in this monitoring program tested positive for Japanese encephalitis virus, promoting the current health warnings.
Up to now, scientists have thought the risk of Japanese encephalitis was likely greatest following seasons of above-average rainfall or flooding. This provides ideal conditions for waterbirds and mosquitoes.
But the activity of Japanese encephalitis virus over the summer of 2024–25 has taken many scientists by surprise. Before Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred arrived, there had been somewhat dry conditions with less waterbird activity and low mosquito numbers in many regions of eastern Australia.
However there has still been widespread Japanese encephalitis virus activity in Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
To date, Japanese encephalitis virus activity hasn’t extended to the coastal regions of southeast Queensland. The detection of the virus in suburban Brisbane may require authorities to rethink exactly where the virus may turn up next. Authorities are ramping up their surveillance to see just how widespread the virus is in the region.
Health authorities and scientists are also trying to understand how the virus moved from western areas of the state to the coast and what drives virus transmission in different regions.
There is currently no evidence the virus is active in coastal regions of northern NSW.
Avoiding mosquito bites is the best way to reduce the risk of Japanese encephalitis virus.
Cover up with long-sleeved shirts and long pants for a physical barrier against mosquito bites.
Use topical insect repellents containing DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus. Be sure to apply an even coat on all exposed areas of skin for the longest-lasting protection.
Ensure any insect screens on houses, tents and caravans are in good repair and reduce the amount of standing water in the backyard. The more water there is around your home, the more opportunities for mosquitoes there are.
A safe and effective vaccine is available against Japanese encephalitis. Each state and territory health authority (for example Queensland, NSW, Victoria) have specific recommendations about access to vaccinations.
It may take many weeks following vaccination to achieve sufficient protection, so prioritise reducing your exposure to bites in the meantime.
Cameron Webb and the Department of Medical Entomology, NSW Health Pathology and University of Sydney, have been engaged by a wide range of insect repellent and insecticide manufacturers to provide testing of products and provide expert advice on medically important arthropods, including mosquitoes. Cameron has also received funding from local, state and federal agencies to undertake research into various aspects of management of various medically important arthropods.
Andrew van den Hurk has received funding from local, state and federal agencies to study the ecology of mosquito-borne pathogens, and their surveillance and control. He is an employee of the Department of Health, Queensland government.
– ref. Japanese encephalitis has claimed a second life in NSW and been detected in Brisbane. What is it? – https://theconversation.com/japanese-encephalitis-has-claimed-a-second-life-in-nsw-and-been-detected-in-brisbane-what-is-it-252373
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne
A fire at a nightclub in North Macedonia has killed at least 59 people and injured more than 150. The blaze broke out at the Pulse nightclub in Kočani, where around 500 people were attending a concert.
Witnesses reported that pyrotechnics used during the performance ignited the ceiling, causing flames to spread rapidly.
Authorities have arrested 20 people so far, including the club’s manager. Investigations continue. The North Macedonian government has declared a seven-day mourning period.
While building fires are not limited to nightclubs, many of the most devastating building fires in history have happened in nightclubs around the world. So why are nightclubs such a risky place for deadly fires?
A look at past nightclub fires shows just how common and deadly they’ve been in the past 100 years. We identified at least 24 nightclub fires where ten or more people died since 1940.
Collectively, these 24 incidents account for at least 2,800 deaths, with nearly 1,300 in the 21st century alone.
The Cocoanut Grove fire (Boston, 1942) remains the deadliest on record, killing 492 people. The club’s flammable decorations and locked exits turned what should have been an ordinary night out into one of the worst fire disasters in history.
In Argentina, the República Cromañón fire killed 194 people in 2004, caused by pyrotechnics igniting flammable materials inside the club.
The Kiss nightclub fire in Brazil in 2013 was even deadlier, claiming 242 lives.
More recently, Thailand’s Mountain B nightclub fire killed 23 people in 2022.
And in 2023, 13 people died in a fire at the Fonda Milagros nightclub in Spain.
Now, North Macedonia’s Pulse nightclub joins this long list.
A review of past nightclub fires we’ve collated in our database reveals common patterns. Two key factors have contributed to the frequency and severity of these fire disasters.
1. Pyrotechnics, fireworks and flammable materials
One of the most common causes of nightclub fires has been the use of pyrotechnics in enclosed spaces. Pyrotechnics are controlled chemical reactions designed to produce flames, smoke, or light effects.
They have been involved in at least six of the deadliest nightclub fires, including the recent Pulse nightclub fire in North Macedonia, as well as The Station (United States, 2003), Kiss (Brazil, 2013), Colectiv (Romania, 2015), Lame Horse (Russia, 2009) and República Cromañón (Argentina, 2004).
When used indoors, pyrotechnics can easily ignite flammable ceiling materials, acoustic foam, or decorations.
In some cases, fireworks – which are different from stage pyrotechnics and sometimes illegally used indoors – have played a role. The Lame Horse nightclub fire, which killed 156 people in Russia in 2009, was caused by a spark from fireworks igniting a low ceiling covered in flammable plastic decorations.
Even when fires don’t start from pyrotechnics or fireworks, the materials used in nightclub interiors can rapidly turn a small fire into a major disaster.
Foam insulation, wooden panelling, plastic decorations and carpeted walls have all been key factors in past nightclub fires. In Cocoanut Grove (Boston, 1942), artificial palm trees and other flammable decorations accelerated the blaze.
2. Overcrowding and blocked or insufficient exits
Evacuation failures have been a factor in nearly every major nightclub fire.
In some instances, crowds may not immediately recognise the severity of the situation, especially if they mistake alarms for false alarms or special effects (for example, smoke machines, loud music).
Further, patrons could be intoxicated due alcohol or other drugs. Intoxication combined with potential disorientation due to dim lighting can further reduce judgement during an evacuation.
Clearly, the best way to protect patrons is to prevent a fire from breaking out in the first place. But in settings where fire risks are inherently high, the ability to evacuate people swiftly is crucial.
Nightclubs, however, have a poor track record when it comes to evacuation safety measures.
Nightclubs are among the most crowded indoor spaces. While crowd density is part of a nightclub’s design and atmosphere, overcrowding beyond legal capacity is common.
A crowd that has gradually gathered over several hours must suddenly evacuate in seconds or minutes to survive a fire. This is made more difficult by narrow hallways and limited exits, which quickly become bottlenecks when hundreds of people attempt to escape at once.
What’s more, not all exits are always accessible during a fire. In several past nightclub disasters, locked or obstructed emergency exits have significantly worsened the death toll.
Nightclubs are uniquely vulnerable to fires due to a combination of structural risks, unsafe materials, overcrowding and regulatory failures.
While human behaviour plays a role in how fires unfold in confined spaces such as nightclubs, people should be able to go for a night out and expect to come home safely.
Regulatory oversight must ensure strict compliance with fire codes. Venues should have fire suppression systems (such as sprinklers, fire extinguishers and smoke detectors) to control or contain fires before they spread, and adequate exits.
Nightclubs should ban indoor pyrotechnics and fireworks, as history has repeatedly shown their deadly consequences.
Capacity limits must be enforced, and emergency exits should always be accessible.
Australia has strict fire safety regulations for nightclubs, with venues required to have fire suppression systems, emergency exits and trained staff to manage fire risks.
Public awareness is also key. Patrons need to understand the real risk of fires in nightclubs, and be prepared to evacuate swiftly but calmly if danger arises.
Ruggiero Lovreglio receives funding from Royal Society Te Apārangi (NZ) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA).
Milad Haghani does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
– ref. Many of history’s deadliest building fires have been in nightclubs. Here’s why they’re so dangerous – https://theconversation.com/many-of-historys-deadliest-building-fires-have-been-in-nightclubs-heres-why-theyre-so-dangerous-252372
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Walker-Munro, Senior Lecturer (Law), Southern Cross University
Shortly after taking office, US President Donald Trump issued executive orders banning federal funding on so-called “woke” research.
This is part of his broader ban on all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, grants and programs in the US government.
These orders are massive in scope, impacting studies as varied as stroke recovery, computing and ancient languages.
The impact in the United States so far has been dramatic. Some universities are already cutting student admissions and looking at ways to shed academic staff and researchers.
Now the ban has impacted Australian researchers who have links to US government-funded projects. The Trump Administration is asking for information on how their research fits in with US foreign and domestic policy.
The US government has sent a 36-point questionnaire to some Australian researchers who are working on joint projects with US colleagues.
ABC Radio National reports at least eight Australian universities are involved. Their research areas include foreign aid, medicine, vaccines and defence. The New York Times reports a similar document has also been sent to other overseas organisations with US funding links.
The questions are wide-ranging and cover academics’ links to China as well as their projects’ focus on topics such as diversity, inclusion and gender identity, as well as climate change.
Some of the specific questions include:
Can you confirm that your organisation has not received ANY funding from PRC People’s Republic of China, Russia, Cuba or Iran?
Can you confirm that this is no DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] project or DEI elements of the project? [sic]
Does this project take appropriate measures to protect women and to defend against gender ideology as defined in the below Executive Order?
Can you confirm this is not a climate or “environmental justice” project or include such elements?
The survey also covers issues such as secure borders with Mexico, ending government waste, terrorism, the war on opioids, and “eradicating anti-Christian bias”.
In response, the Group of Eight (which represents Australia’s top research universities) and Australian Academy of Science have separately raised concerns with the Australian government about the survey and its impact on Australian research.
The Group of Eight says the US has already suspended or terminated research grants with six of its eight member universities.
The National Tertiary Education Union also labelled the survey “blatant foreign interference”.
A spokesperson for Education Minister Jason Clare says Australia is
“engaging with the US government to understand what these measures mean for future funding and collaboration”.
Trump’s executive orders are currently the subject of numerous lawsuits in the US. Plaintiffs say Trump’s orders violate the First and Fifth Amendments – those dealing with protection of free speech, equal protection and “due process of law” when depriving a citizen of property.
Whether Trump’s orders are legal or not is a tricky question, and will likely come down the judges hearing each case.
In the meantime, US government agencies are withholding funding anyway. Reports also suggests Trump has instructed his administration to ignore court orders – hardly surprising, given Trump’s history of contempt of US courts.
US involvement in Australian research is significant. According to the Academy of Science, US government research funding involving Australian research organisations was $A386 million in 2024.
It is arguable Trump’s orders infringe Australian sovereignty. But the US has always had the capacity to interfere in Australian university research – it just hasn’t actually done it until now.
Research contracts signed between universities and funding bodies can contain all kinds of requirements, so US law can end up applying to Australian researchers. When the AUKUS deal was announced in 2021, a huge question was how universities would comply with notoriously harsh US export control laws.
The survey indicates it was issued by the US Office of Management and Budget and appears to be supported by the US CHIPS and Science Act (which authorises certain research investments) and National Science Foundation policies. So, while Australian researchers could potentially ignore these questionnaires, that would legally give a US funding body grounds to cancel the funding contract.
Our foreign interference laws also weren’t designed for situations like this. Even if they did, Trump is the current head of the US government, and is likely to be immune from prosecution
Statutory tests for foreign interference – including criteria that such acts are covert, and/or involve threats of harm – simply don’t apply to a US president like Trump.
So legally, it doesn’t look like there is much Australia can do about Trump’s orders.
Some newly unemployed researchers are now poised to leave the US, taking their research with them. This poses a potential security risk, with countries such as China and Russia both keen to capitalise on Trump’s decisions.
But other nations are also aware of the possibilities. The European Union has already offered displaced US scientists a more “sympathetic place to work”. South Korea and Canada are also marketing themselves as attractive options. Australia could follow suit.
The federal government is currently doing a strategic review of Australia’s research and development system. This could make diversifying our research partners a national priority.
This could include revisiting a 2023 decision, not to join Horizon Europe – the European Union’s key research fund.
Either way, given such radical changes in the US, Australia needs to seriously reconsider how it is funding and structuring research.
Brendan Walker-Munro has consulted for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor, and is also an Adjunct Expert Associate of the National Security College. He has received funding from the Social Cyber Institute and Active Cyber Defence Alliance.
– ref. Trump is surveying Australian academics about gender diversity and China – what does this mean for unis and their research? – https://theconversation.com/trump-is-surveying-australian-academics-about-gender-diversity-and-china-what-does-this-mean-for-unis-and-their-research-252282
Source: China State Council Information Office 2
Beijing ranks first nationally in high-quality development, according to the Beijing High-Quality Development Report released at the sixth Capital High-Quality Development Symposium at Beihang University on March 14, 2025. This solidifies its leading position alongside Shanghai and Shenzhen as top-tier cities.
The sixth Capital High-Quality Development Symposium is held at Beihang University in Beijing on March 14, 2025. [Photo by Yang Chuanli/China.org.cn]
The report expanded its research scope for the first time to 318 prefecture-level cities across China, identifying the nation’s top 50 cities in high-quality development. Beijing’s high-quality development index demonstrated steady growth, rising from 0.71 in 2017 to 0.86 in 2023. This marked a 21.1% increase with an average annual growth rate of 3.25%.
Beijing demonstrates excellence across six dimensions: economy, society, environment, innovation, culture and governance, with a particularly strong performance in economic, innovation and cultural metrics. The top 10 cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Xiamen, Suzhou and Ningbo.
Jia Pinrong, director of the High-quality Development Research Center at the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, attributed Beijing’s leadership to five pillars. These include the deep implementation of high-quality development principles, the transformation of scientific innovation into industrial momentum and the dual-driven growth of high-end precision industries and the digital economy.
Jia also highlighted the role of regional synergy through the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development strategy and the expansion of new quality productive forces. Additionally, he emphasized Beijing’s national leadership in green and low-carbon transition practices.
Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), Jia proposed a three-tiered strategy for urban high-quality development. At the micro level, priorities should include advancing core technologies, cultivating talent, upgrading infrastructure, stimulating consumer spending and empowering industry leaders.
For industries, Jia recommended optimizing structures, fostering new quality productive forces and enhancing global supply chain competitiveness. At the city level, efforts should focus on establishing incentive mechanisms, accelerating digital transformation, improving workforce skills and aligning development with green and intelligent trends.
The symposium featured an invited address by Yu Bin, a national committee member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and director of the Technical Economics Research Center at Tsinghua University. Other keynote speakers included Fan Ying, dean of the School of Economics and Management at Beihang University, and Pan Chong, dean of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Beihang University.
Roundtable discussions at the symposium explored topics including artificial intelligence applications, green new productive forces and environmental, social and governance (ESG) solutions. Scholars proposed integrated technical and managerial strategies for these areas.
Since 2019, the Beijing High-Quality Development Report has provided an annual assessment of Beijing’s progress across various dimensions. This year’s edition, co-organized by the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology and Beihang University, provides a comprehensive benchmark for national urban development.
Source: China State Council Information Office
Vowing to make domestic demand “the main engine and anchor of economic growth”, China’s policymakers have sent fresh and firm signals on empowering the vast number of consumers to spend, countering skepticism about the country’s shift toward a consumption-driven economy.
China will “place a stronger economic policy focus on improving living standards and boosting consumer spending”, according to this year’s Government Work Report submitted on March 5 to the National People’s Congress, the national legislature, for deliberation.
Boosting consumption is hardly a fresh concept in the Chinese policy toolbox, and consumer spending has played an increasingly vital role in China’s economy. In 2024, final consumption contributed 44.5 percent to China’s economic growth, surpassing investment and exports, and drove GDP up by 2.2 percentage points.
This year, however, the push has been particularly important as China’s economy contends with rising trade protectionism and global headwinds, while the domestic shift from traditional growth drivers, such as real estate, to new and more sustainable ones poses new challenges.
“Expanding domestic demand through stimulating consumption can effectively counter external uncertainties, and it stabilizes short-term growth while aiding structural shifts over time,” said Yang Decai, a national political advisor and economics professor at Nanjing University, during the annual meetings of China’s top legislature and political advisory body, known as the two sessions.
To support this pivotal transition, the Government Work Report unveiled stronger supportive measures, including issuing ultra-long special treasury bonds of 300 billion yuan ($41.3 billion) to back the consumer goods trade-in program, doubling the scale from last year.
The trade-in program, launched a year ago, has played a vital role in revitalizing consumer markets. In 2024, it led to sales exceeding 1.3 trillion yuan, including over 6.8 million vehicles, 56 million home appliances and 1.38 million e-bikes. More items have been added to the list of subsidized products this year.
“The trade-in program is more than just an economic policy,” Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao told a news conference on the sidelines of the third session of the 14th NPC on March 6, noting that it has fostered new development engines and improved the quality of life for millions of households.
Wang pointed out that the primary issue constraining goods consumption is the ability and willingness to spend, while the main challenge for services consumption is the lack of high-quality supply.
To tackle these weaknesses, the Chinese government, in addition to clinching cheaper deals for consumers, aims to lift consumer confidence by bolstering people’s well-being, with a focus on creating jobs, raising incomes and easing their financial burdens.
More funds and resources will be used to serve the people and meet their needs, according to the Government Work Report.
Targeting over 12 million new urban jobs this year, the government will provide stronger support for full and higher-quality employment, according to the report. It also pledged to raise the minimum basic old-age benefits for rural and non-working urban residents as well as the basic pension benefits for retirees.
“Raising farmers’ pension payments may be the most effective way to boost consumption because it will significantly reduce the savings rate and boost consumption for half of China’s population,” said Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura, who expects more will be done in this regard in coming years.
Government spending on education will rise by 6.1 percent this year and that on social security and employment by 5.9 percent, with strong gains also expected in healthcare and housing, Finance Minister Lan Fo’an revealed at the news conference on March 6.
Chinese policymakers have also tied consumption to lifestyle upgrades, not just spending volume, as the Government Work Report highlighted the need to create new consumption scenarios to accelerate the growth of digital, green, smart, and other new types of consumption.
It promised to improve the leave system and ensure its implementation to unlock consumption potential in sectors like culture, tourism and sports, which are among the most powerful service consumption engines.
Meanwhile, new consumption trends, from winter sports boom to silver-haired consumer spending upsurge, are already stoking fresh growth.
The silver economy, which caters to China’s aging population, could reach 30 trillion yuan by 2035 and create at least 100 million jobs by 2050, according to national political advisor Jin Li, vice-president of Southern University of Science and Technology.
Sun Guangzhi, head of the provincial culture and tourism department of the ice and snow-rich Jilin province, said the northeastern province sparked over 100 million yuan in direct spending by issuing consumption vouchers in the latest snow season.
“This demonstrates the combined benefits of policy incentives and local resource strength,” said Sun, a national lawmaker.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catie Gressier, Adjunct Research Fellow in Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia
It took thousands of years to develop the world’s extraordinary range of domesticated farm animals – an estimated 8,800 livestock breeds across 38 farmed species.
But this diversity is dwindling fast. Advances in selective breeding and artificial insemination have fuelled the global spread of a small number of profitable livestock types. Their popularity has left ever more heritage breeds at risk of extinction.
Why does this matter? Each breed represents vital genetic diversity for the livestock species on which we rely, known as agrobiodiversity. As the number of breeds shrink, we lose their genetics forever.
There are bright spots amid the decline. Hundreds of passionate farmers are working hard to keep heritage breeds alive around Australia. As my new book shows, they do it primarily for love.
Cattle have experienced the highest number of extinctions, with at least 184 breeds lost globally.
Of all chicken breeds, one in ten is now extinct, and a further 30% are endangered.
Sheep are also rapidly losing diversity, with 160 breeds now extinct. The rise of synthetic materials has endangered the remaining breeds producing carpet wool in New Zealand and Australia, including the unique Tasmanian Elliottdale.
Pigs fare little better. Australia’s 2.5 million pigs are predominantly Large White, Landrace and Duroc crossbreeds, while none of the eight remaining purebred pig breeds in Australia currently has more than 100 sows registered with the Rare Breeds Trust. While not all sows are registered, we know breeds such as Tamworths are at dangerously low numbers.
How did this happen? Over the past century, the goal of animal husbandry has shifted from breeding hardy, multipurpose animals to increasing performance for economic gain. For livestock, performance means more of what humans value, such as pigs with extra ribs, prolific egg-laying hens and sheep with finer wool.
Huge sums have been spent on selective breeding and artificial insemination technologies. This, in turn, has made it possible for a small number of profitable livestock types to be farmed globally.
For instance, when you buy a roast chicken, it will likely be one of just two types of fast-growing broilers (meat chickens), the Ross or the Cobb. Their genetics are developed and trademarked by two multinational agribusinesses who dominate the global broiler market.
It’s hard to overstate how big the increases in production have been from reproductive technologies. In the dairy industry, for instance, milk yield per cow has doubled in the past 40 years. These volumes are around six times greater now than a century ago.
Holsteins, the top dairy breed, have become globally dominant. Almost 1.4 million of Australia’s 1.65 million dairy cows are Holsteins. But as Holstein numbers soar, other breeds dwindle. Many farmers have simply stopped rearing other breeds, leading to many becoming endangered or extinct.
For Holsteins themselves, this has come with a cost. Selective breeding for high milk volume has meant Holsteins suffer more medical issues such as metabolic diseases and frequent mastitis. They also have reduced fertility and longevity.
Researchers have found 99% of Holstein bulls produced by artificial insemination in the United States are descended from just two sires. This wide dissemination of limited bloodlines has led to the spread of genetic defects.
Our food systems face growing threats. Genetic diversity provides a safeguard for livestock species against lethal animal diseases such as H5N1 bird flu and African swine fever.
If we rely on just a few breeds, we risk a wipe out. The Irish potato famine is a catastrophic example. In the 1800s, Irish farmers took up the “lumper” variety of potatoes to feed a growing population. But when fungal rot struck in the 1840s, it turned most of the crop to mush – and led to mass starvation.
Some breeds have very useful traits, such as resistance to particular pests and diseases.
Chickens and other birds die in swathes if infected by Newcastle disease, one of the most serious bird viruses. But breeds such as the hardy Egyptian Fayoumi survive better, while the European Leghorn – whose genetics are used in commercial egg-laying breeds – is highly susceptible.
Local breeds can also have better resistance to endemic pests. The Indian zebu humped cattle breed, for example, is less prone to tick infestation than crossbreeds.
Climate change is also making life harder for livestock, and some breeds are better adapted to heat than others.
For different cultural groups, local heritage breeds also have unique symbolic and culinary value.
While it’s well-known eating less meat would benefit ecosystems, animal welfare and human health, eating meat remains entrenched in our diets and the economy. Pursuing more sustainable and higher-welfare approaches to livestock production is crucial.
A cohort of Australian farmers is working hard to conserve dozens of endangered livestock breeds such as Large Black pigs, Shropshire sheep and Belted Galloway cattle.
But these farmers are hampered by our reluctance as consumers to pay more to cover the cost of raising slower-growing breeds in free-range environments. Not only that, but meat processors are increasingly closing their doors to small-scale producers.
Why persevere? For four years, I’ve conducted ethnographic research with Australia’s heritage breed farmers. I found they were motivated by one of the most powerful conservation tools we have: love.
Of his endangered English Leicester sheep, one farmer told me:
I consider them to be family; they have been our family for over 150 years. I talk to them, and the rams in particular talk to me. Sorry if I sound like a silly old man, but you must talk to them. I gave myself a 60th birthday present by commissioning a large portrait of an English Leicester head, which hangs in our kitchen (I do not have a painting of my wife).
Love doesn’t often feature in agricultural research. But it is an important force. We know from wildlife conservation that humans will act to save what they love. This holds for livestock, too.
What can you do? If you eat meat or work with wool, seek out rare breeds and join organisations such as the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia and the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance who back farmers supporting breed diversity.
Catie Gressier receives funding from the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project scheme as well as the European Research Council. She is affiliated with the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia and the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance.
– ref. Hundreds of livestock breeds have gone extinct – but some Australian farmers are keeping endangered breeds alive – https://theconversation.com/hundreds-of-livestock-breeds-have-gone-extinct-but-some-australian-farmers-are-keeping-endangered-breeds-alive-250393
Source: US Geological Survey
The cryosphere refers to the frozen water features of our planet, including snow, glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice, and permafrost. Water resources and hazards that threaten human life, infrastructure, and commerce are influenced by the cryosphere.
USGS cryospheric research provides scientific insight and unbiased data to our stakeholders and partners allowing them to:
A recently published USGS fact sheet describes the importance of the cryosphere and highlights USGS research that benefits various partner agencies and the public. The factsheet also describes how stakeholders use USGS data and how local communities can benefit from USGS cryospheric science. For example, high-elevation weather station data and field observations in Glacier National Park, Montana are used to forecast snow avalanches that affect park roads, highways, and railroad lines.
Click on the images below to learn more about two of the research efforts highlighted in the cryosphere fact sheet and how this research is used to protect transportation corridors, assist with water resource planning, and contribute to global assessments of glacier change.
Source: University of South Australia
17 March 2025
Pork accounts for at least 60% of all meat eaten in China, but its popularity exacts a heavy toll on the environment that has proven tricky to resolve until now.
A new study by Chinese and Australian researchers has identified a sustainable solution to mitigating excessive amounts of copper found in the 3.8 billion tons of pig manure turned into organic fertiliser to increase crop yields.
Although an essential nutrient in small doses, high concentrations of copper – added to pig feed to promote growth – is toxic to plants, soil, water and humans.
Researchers from China’s Fujian Normal University and the University of South Australia have demonstrated that adding green-synthesised iron nanoparticles (G-nFe) to pig manure neutralises the amount of bioavailable copper in piggery effluent, reducing the environmental risks.
China has regulations limiting the amount of copper allowed in pig feed, but the scale of livestock farming keeps increasing to feed a population of 1.4 billion people, making it difficult to control the huge amount of manure and sewage released into the environment.
Experiments undertaken by researchers showed that adding G-nFe to pig manure compost reduced exchangeable cooper by 66.8%, carbonate-bound copper by 47.5%, and iron-manganese oxide-bound copper by 15.4%.
“This process was able to convert free copper into a less bioavailable form, reducing the potential for uptake by plants,” according to UniSA environmental chemist, Associate Professor Gary Owens, who was part of the study.
Residual copper levels initially increased by a third in the first five days before declining by over 60.9% over the full composting period.
The study findings have recently been published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
China processes approximately 628 million pigs annually, making it the world’s largest pork producer.
Nearly half of the 3.8 billion tons of the resulting pig manure is inadequately treated, researchers say, and the heavy metal and organic pollutants are causing widespread environmental contamination.
While pig manure has traditionally been valued s an inexpensive organic fertiliser for Chinese farmers, it is increasingly posing a serious problem due to the heavy metal contamination, posing a challenge for both government and researchers seeking economically viable solutions.
Green synthesised iron nanoparticles have been widely used to remediate water and soil contamination due to its cost-effectiveness, low toxicity, and strong absorption rates.
However, this is the first study to explore its use in organic compost to remediate heavy metal pollution.
“This research presents a significant step forward in addressing heavy metal contamination in agricultural waste,” according to Assoc Prof Owens.
“By using green-synthesised iron nanoparticles, we can not only improve the safety of composted pig manure, but also contribute to more sustainable farming practices.”
The researchers plan to test G-nFe’s efficiency in larger composting systems using fresh pig manure, hoping to encourage stakeholders in the livestock and composting sectors to adopt the process.
A video explaining the research is available at https://youtu.be/CoEz82qlSq8
Notes for editors
“Enhanced Copper Passivation in Pig Manure Composting through Iron Nanoparticle Amendment” is authored by researchers from Fujian Polytechnic Normal University, Fujian Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse, and the University of South Australia. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177950
The University of South Australia and the University of Adelaide are joining forces to become Australia’s new major university – Adelaide University. Building on the strengths, legacies and resources of two leading universities, Adelaide University will deliver globally relevant research at scale, innovative, industry-informed teaching and an outstanding student experience. Adelaide University will open its doors in January 2026. Find out more on the Adelaide University website.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Media contact: Candy Gibson M: +61 434 605 142 E: candy.gibson@unisa.edu.au
Researcher contact: Associate Professor Gary Owens E: gary.owens@unisa.edu.au
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University
One of the most enduring questions humans have is how long we’re going to live. With this comes the question of how much of our lifespan is shaped by our environment and choices, and how much is predetermined by our genes.
A study recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine has attempted for the first time to quantify the relative contributions of our environment and lifestyle versus our genetics in how we age and how long we live.
The findings were striking, suggesting our environment and lifestyle play a much greater role than our genes in determining our longevity.
This study used data from the UK Biobank, a large database in the United Kingdom that contains in-depth health and lifestyle data from roughly 500,000 people. The data available include genetic information, medical records, imaging and information about lifestyle.
A separate part of the study used data from a subset of more than 45,000 participants whose blood samples underwent something called “proteomic profiling”.
Proteomic profiling is a relatively new technique that looks at how proteins in the body change over time to identify a person’s age at a molecular level. By using this method researchers were able to estimate how quickly an individual’s body was actually ageing. This is called their biological age, as opposed to their chronological age (or years lived).
The researchers assessed 164 environmental exposures as well as participants’ genetic markers for disease. Environmental exposures included lifestyle choices (for example, smoking, physical activity), social factors (for example, living conditions, household income, employment status) and early life factors, such as body weight in childhood.
They then looked for associations between genetics and environment and 22 major age-related diseases (such as coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes), mortality and biological ageing (as determined by the proteomic profiling).
These analyses allowed the researchers to estimate the relative contributions of environmental factors and genetics to ageing and dying prematurely.
When it came to disease-related mortality, as we would expect, age and sex explained a significant amount (about half) of the variation in how long people lived. The key finding, however, was environmental factors collectively accounted for around 17% of the variation in lifespan, while genetic factors contributed less than 2%.
This finding comes down very clearly on the nurture side in the “nature versus nurture” debate. It suggests environmental factors influence health and longevity to a far greater extent than genetics.
Not unexpectedly, the study showed a different mix of environmental and genetic influences for different diseases. Environmental factors had the greatest impact on lung, heart and liver disease, while genetics played the biggest role in determining a person’s risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers, and dementia.
The environmental factors that had the most influence on earlier death and biological ageing included smoking, socioeconomic status, physical activity levels and living conditions.
Interestingly, being taller at age ten was found to be associated with a shorter lifespan. Although this may seem surprising, and the reasons are not entirely clear, this aligns with previous research finding taller people are more likely to die earlier.
Carrying more weight at age ten and maternal smoking (if your mother smoked in late pregnancy or when you were a newborn) were also found to shorten lifespan.
Probably the most surprising finding in this study was a lack of association between diet and markers of biological ageing, as determined by the proteomic profiling. This flies in the face of the extensive body of evidence showing the crucial role of dietary patterns in chronic disease risk and longevity.
But there are a number of plausible explanations for this. The first could be a lack of statistical power in the part of the study looking at biological ageing. That is, the number of people studied may have been too small to allow the researchers to see the true impact of diet on ageing.
Second, the dietary data in this study, which was self-reported and only measured at one time point, is likely to have been of relatively poor quality, limiting the researchers’ ability to see associations. And third, as the relationship between diet and longevity is likely to be complex, disentangling dietary effects from other lifestyle factors may be difficult.
So despite this finding, it’s still safe to say the food we eat is one of the most important pillars of health and longevity.
Key exposures (such as diet) in this study were only measured at a single point in time, and not tracked over time, introducing potential errors into the results.
Also, as this was an observational study, we can’t assume associations found represent causal relationships. For example, just because living with a partner correlated with a longer lifespan, it doesn’t mean this caused a person to live longer. There may be other factors which explain this association.
Finally, it’s possible this study may have underestimated the role of genetics in longevity. It’s important to recognise genetics and environment don’t operate in isolation. Rather, health outcomes are shaped by their interplay, and this study may not have fully captured the complexity of these interactions.
It’s worth noting there were a number of factors such as household income, home ownership and employment status associated with diseases of ageing in this study that are not necessarily within a person’s control. This highlights the crucial role of addressing the social determinants of health to ensure everyone has the best possible chance of living a long and healthy life.
At the same time, the results offer an empowering message that longevity is largely shaped by the choices we make. This is great news, unless you have good genes and were hoping they would do the heavy lifting.
Ultimately, the results of this study reinforce the notion that while we may inherit certain genetic risks, how we eat, move and engage with the world seems to be more important in determining how healthy we are and how long we live.
Hassan Vally does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
– ref. How long will you live? New evidence says its much more about your choices than your genes – https://theconversation.com/how-long-will-you-live-new-evidence-says-its-much-more-about-your-choices-than-your-genes-251054
Source: South Africa News Agency
Sunday, March 16, 2025
President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Monday officially open the Bana Pele Early Childhood Development (ECD) Leadership Summit at the Atlas Studios, in Johannesburg.
The summit, convened by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), aims to mobilise a public and private coalition behind the DBE’s 2030 ECD Roadmap for quality, universal access to early learning.
In a statement on Saturday, The Presidency noted that in South Africa, more than 1.3 million children are not enrolled in any form of ECD programme, leaving them without the foundational literacy and numeracy skills required to succeed in school.
“This learning gap affects their ability to take on critical subjects, such as Mathematics, Science, Accounting, and Economics in later years, which are the skills that are vital for innovation, economic growth, and job creation,” the Presidency said.
The summit will bring together government, business, civil society and education experts to “construct a roadmap for universal access to quality ECD across the country.
“This initiative is a crucial step toward ensuring that every child, regardless of background, has access to the early learning opportunities they need to thrive in life,” the Presidency said. – SAnews.gov.za
Source: South Africa News Agency
Sunday, March 16, 2025
President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Monday officially open the Bana Pele Early Childhood Development (ECD) Leadership Summit at the Atlas Studios, in Johannesburg.
The summit, convened by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), aims to mobilise a public and private coalition behind the DBE’s 2030 ECD Roadmap for quality, universal access to early learning.
In a statement on Saturday, The Presidency noted that in South Africa, more than 1.3 million children are not enrolled in any form of ECD programme, leaving them without the foundational literacy and numeracy skills required to succeed in school.
“This learning gap affects their ability to take on critical subjects, such as Mathematics, Science, Accounting, and Economics in later years, which are the skills that are vital for innovation, economic growth, and job creation,” the Presidency said.
The summit will bring together government, business, civil society and education experts to “construct a roadmap for universal access to quality ECD across the country.
“This initiative is a crucial step toward ensuring that every child, regardless of background, has access to the early learning opportunities they need to thrive in life,” the Presidency said. – SAnews.gov.za
Source: South Africa News Agency
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Deputy President Paul Mashatile will on Sunday undertake a working visit to Tokyo, in Japan.
The Presidency said the visit, from 16 – 19 March 2025, is aimed at “reaffirming the strong cooperation between” the countries in areas of mutual interest.
“The two countries enjoy well established diplomatic relations, and the year 2025 marks 115 years of such relations. The working visit by the Deputy President underscores South Africa’s strong commitment and the importance that South Africa attaches to the relationship with Japan.
“During the working visit, the Deputy President and his delegation will meet with the Japanese Government and private sector stakeholders to advance South Africa’s key economic growth drivers, such as manufactured-led growth and increasing South Africa’s exports,” the Presidency said in a statement on Saturday.
The Deputy President will be accompanied by Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Tandi Moraka; Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, Minister of Higher Education, Dr Nobuhle Nkabane; Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, Trade Industry and Competition Minister, Parks Tau; and Science, Technology and Innovation Deputy Minister, Nomalungelo Gina. – SAnews.gov.za
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Aisha Ahmad, Associate Professor, Political Science, University of Toronto
Prime Minister Mark Carney has vowed Canada will never be a 51st American state and has called on Canada to present a united front to defend against United States President Donald Trump’s escalating attacks on Canada’s economy and sovereignty.
Most Canadians are already on board. Provincial premiers have committed to defending against tariffs, and recent polling data shows 85 per cent of Canadians resolutely reject Trump’s threats of annexation.
Yet, despite this widespread patriotism, some Canadians may have a relative or friend in the contrarian 10 per cent of citizens who welcome annexation.
Why do these people support Trump?
The answer has less to do with politics or economic frustration than it does psychology. The reason some Canadians are reacting positively to Trump’s threats is because cognitive biases often prevent human beings from accurately assessing shocks to their security environment.
Psychological biases are well-researched in international security scholarship, and I have witnessed their consequences first-hand in my work in conflict zones.
From peacekeepers to politicians to ordinary civilians, I have seen how cognitive biases can cause rational, intelligent people to ignore valuable evidence, even at great peril.
Humans often react to unsettling evidence by denying, minimizing or re-interpreting the information to restore their cognitive ease. Everyone in a conflict-prone part of the world experiences cognitive distortions and denial at some point. Psychological security often overrides physical security.
But these biases are dangerous. They undermine decision-making, slow down reaction times and cause people to believe dangerous things that make them unsafe.
The tricky part is that challenging a person’s denial can provoke defensiveness, even rage. But allowing denial to persist leaves them dangerously unprepared to face real-world threats.
On balance, the safer choice is to rip off these psychological Band-aids.
Except for a small percentage of extremists, the 10 per cent who are in favour of American annexation are ordinary Canadians. What makes them different are two interrelated cognitive biases: confirmation bias and belief perseverance.
For Canadians who hold Trump in high esteem, acknowledging his threats creates cognitive dissonance. Some people find dissonance so distressing that it feels easier to reject or reinterpret the contrary information in a way that protects prior-held ideas and restores cognitive ease.
These confirmation biases allow the 10 per cent to redefine the word “annexation” to mean something else, such as peaceful political unification. That imagined definition turns Trump’s threat into a friendly proposal leading to greater prosperity and security.
That reinterpretation may reduce psychological distress, but it’s delusional.
Political unification is a non-coercive and consent-based process, wherein parties agree to incorporation through referendum, typically producing an all new government. Trump is proposing unilateral annexation, which is the hostile and illegal seizure of a sovereign state’s territory and the subjugation of its population.
Annexation is not marriage. It’s rape.
Unilateral annexation is so inherently violent that its prohibition in Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter is considered the legal cornerstone of the post-Second World War international order.
As Trump, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping each champion annexing nearby sovereign nations in the name of greatness, that international order is now crumbling. If the laws, norms and institutions preventing annexation collapse, it opens the door to invasions, insurgencies and even global war.
Read more:
Why annexing Canada would destroy the United States
Many of the 10 per cent are simply unaware of what “annexation” truly means, and could rationally change their position once they understand the facts. But a smaller subset of that group may reject the evidence entirely.
Belief perseverance causes some people to aggressively hold their original position, even when presented with disconfirming evidence.
While denial helps them feel safe in the moment, it also makes them dangerously unprepared to deal with real threats.
Patriotic “elbows up” Canadians must also be wary of denial. For them, the issue is not identifying the threats, but comprehending their full implications.
Even among informed citizens, NATO, NORAD and the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance are not easy to relate to. Trade wars show up on grocery bills, but these defence organizations keep peace in the background, which is harder to notice.
Canadians may intellectually understand that North American security is deteriorating, but that crisis may not seem as real as tariffs.
This is called “normalcy bias,” a psychological tendency to minimize the probability of threats or the dangers they pose, which delays protective action. Normalcy and optimism biases are why many people fail to evacuate quickly when they are forewarned about wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakes and even wars.
Slow reactions are not caused by stupidity or laziness. Research shows that the majority people respond inefficiently to warnings of forthcoming disasters. I have witnessed this bias in conflict zones and even experienced its effects myself. I can run 10 kilometres in about an hour, but when the Taliban attacked a bazaar less than 10 kilometres from my flat, it still felt far away.
Why? Because security threats don’t feel close until your windows start to shake.
While a military invasion is not imminent, Trump’s threats are so extreme that they warrant immediate action to improve Canadian defence. The time to take protective action is before windows start shaking.
For the majority of Canadians who already take Trump’s threats seriously, the first step in countering the normalcy bias is to pay attention to new risks and fractures in existing security co-operation.
With that evidence, they can initiate a national conversation about how to reduce vulnerabilities and improve resilience and defence.
There is no time to argue with people who remain cognitively confused. The majority of Canadians are ready to have a laser-focused discussion about the real security challenges on the horizon.
The good news is that Canada can fortify its security and deter threats in this perilous new world.
The range of options may not be as comfortable as the bygone era of friendly alliances and NATO supremacy. But through intelligent debate, Canadians can develop realistic new approaches to national defence, and quickly.
Acceptance and adaptation are the keys to survival.
Aisha Ahmad receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
– ref. Why some Canadians are in denial about Donald Trump – https://theconversation.com/why-some-canadians-are-in-denial-about-donald-trump-251893
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Mark Turin, Associate professor, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia
Across its nearly 250-year history, the United States has never had an official language. On March 1, U.S. President Donald Trump changed that when he signed an executive order designating English as the country’s sole official language. The order marks a fundamental rupture from the American goverment’s long-standing approach to languages.
“From the founding of our Republic, English has been used as our national language,” Trump’s order states. “It is in America’s best interest for the federal government to designate one — and only one — official language.”
This new order also revokes a language-access provision contained in an earlier executive order from 2000 that aimed to improve access to services for people with limited English. Federal agencies now seem to have no obligation to provide vital information in other languages.
Despite some reactions in the New York Times, Washington Post and elsewhere, it remains unclear whether Trump’s executive order will face legal or political challenges. Amid continual attacks from the Trump administration on established norms, this decree may pass with relatively little resistance, despite a deeper meaning that extends far beyond language.
The U.S. has a long multilingual history, beginning with the hundreds of Indigenous languages indelibly linked to these lands. The secondary layer are colonial languages and their variants, including French in Louisiana and Spanish in the Southwest. In all historical periods, immigrant languages from around the world have added substantially to the linguistic mix that makes up the U.S.
Today, New York is one of world’s most linguistically diverse cities, with other U.S. coastal cities not far behind. According to data from the Census Bureau, one-fifth of all Americans can speak two or more languages. The social, economic and cognitive benefits of bilingualism are well-established, and there is no data to support the assertion that speaking more than one language threatens the integrity of the nation state.
English has long functioned as a pragmatic lingua franca for the U.S. Yet an American tendency towards ideological monolingualism is gathering momentum.
The emergence of Spanish as the nation’s second language, with well over 40 million speakers, has generated a particular anxiety. During the last few decades, more than 30 American states have enshrined English as an official language.
The March 1 executive order is a crowning achievement for the “English-only movement.” Trump has tapped directly into this sentiment and its xenophobic preoccupations, rooted in white fragility and white supremacy.
In 2015, during his first bid for the Oval Office, Trump reprimanded Jeb Bush, the bilingual former governor of Florida, during a televised debate, stating: “This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.”
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2024, Trump gave voice to his own linguistic insecurity:
“We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language…These are languages — it’s the craziest thing — they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing.”
Beyond the brazen untruths and intentional exaggerations, such statements only reflect weakness and fear. The March 1 executive order states that “a nationally designated language is at the core of a unified and cohesive society.”
It is in fact a sign of strength that Americans have not needed such a mandate until now, effectively navigating their complex multilingual reality without top-down legislation.
It’s instructive to compare the language policy of the U.S. with other settler colonial contexts where English is dominant.
In neighbouring Canada, the 1969 Official Languages Act grants equal status to English and French — two languages that were brought European migrants — and requires all federal institutions to provide services in both languages on request. Revealingly, only 50 years later did Canada finally pass an Indigenous Languages Act granting modest recognition to the original languages of the land.
While Australia’s constitution specifies no official language, the government promotes English as the “national language,” and then offers to translate some web pages into other languages.
Navigating the distinction between de facto and de jure, New Zealand has taken a more considered approach. Recognizing that English is unthreatened and secure, even without legal backing, New Zealand legislators have focused their attention elsewhere. Te reo Māori was granted official language status in 1987, followed by New Zealand Sign Language in 2006.
Even the colonial centre and origin point for the global spread of English, the United Kingdom assumes a nuanced position on language policy. Welsh and Irish have both received some official recognition, while in Scotland, the Bòrd na Gàidhlig continues to advocate for official recognition of Gaelic.
Trump’s recent executive order is both practical and symbolic.
Practically, it remains unclear what the order means for Spanish in Puerto Rico, the Indigenous languages of Hawaii and Alaska — which have received official recognition — for American Sign Language and for all the multilingual communities that make up the nation.
Language access can be a matter of life or death.
Interpretation in courts, hospitals and schools is a fundamental human right. No one should be barred from accessing vital services simply because they don’t speak English, whether that’s when dealing with a judge, a doctor or a teacher. The consequences of government agencies abandoning their already limited efforts at translation and interpretation could have huge ramifications.
Symbolically, Trump’s order is red meat for his MAGA followers. Associating national integrity with the promotion of one language above others might seem to reflect American exceptionalism, but it in fact destroys the cultural and linguistic diversity that makes the U.S. exceptional.
Ironically, this executive order brings the U.S. into alignment with most of the world’s other nation-states — albeit not the ones that speak English as their first language — which seek to impose the standardized language of an ethnic majority on all of their citizens. The consequences can be both polarizing and homogenizing.
Most of the world’s people are resolutely multilingual and are only becoming more so. Americans will not stop speaking, writing and signing in languages other than English because of an executive order. The linguistic dynamism of the U.S. is essential to the country’s social fabric. It should be nurtured and defended.
Mark Turin receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Tokyo College, the University of Tokyo.
Ross Perlin has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
– ref. Trump’s English language order upends America’s long multilingual history – https://theconversation.com/trumps-english-language-order-upends-americas-long-multilingual-history-252163
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ernest Harsch, Researcher, Institute of African Studies, Columbia University, Columbia University
It didn’t take long for the new government of John Mahama in Ghana to find a dramatic way to highlight its commitment to combating corruption. On 12 February 2025 his special prosecutor declared the previous finance minister a “wanted fugitive” for going abroad to evade questioning for suspected financial irregularities, before later agreeing to schedule a return.
In that one move, the government of Mahama’s National Democratic Congress sounded a couple of familiar notes from past campaigns. First, that the widespread graft so many Ghanaians bemoan was largely the fault of the other party, in this case the New Patriotic Party, voted out the previous December. And second, that dishonesty and misconduct are most damaging when they involve high public officials.
The reality of corruption lived by ordinary Ghanaians is far more complicated than that. Across the past 30 years of electoral democracy, both parties have been tainted by scandal and malfeasance. And over the country’s much longer history, as I detail in a new book, Ghanaians have complained about a wide range of misdeeds by figures in both the public and private realms, in positions high and low.
Ordinary people have often challenged abuses, misdeeds and outright theft by the wealthy and powerful. They did so well before the territory’s indigenous societies were subjugated by Britain and incorporated into its Gold Coast colony.
Based on my research into corruption over Ghana’s centuries-long history, it’s clear to me that the effectiveness of any new initiatives depends as much on action from below as from above. Poor people feel the effects of corruption and exploitation more acutely than the better off. And if they are organised they can push the authorities to be more active in rooting out fraud and graft.
The strongest precolonial society was Asante, an empire that ruled over a wide area of what is today Ghana. At times, the excesses and injustices of Asante’s monarchs provoked turmoil, fuelled by anger among elites and ordinary people alike.
One, Kofi Kakari, was dethroned in 1874 after violating established norms by removing gold ornaments from a sacred mausoleum. His successor, Mensa Bonsu, prompted a popular insurgency and was finally overthrown in 1883 by an alliance of junior aristocrats and commoners.
Meanwhile, the coastal areas populated by Fante developed a more institutionalised method of ensuring chiefly accountability. Commoner-led defence groups, known locally as asafo, which performed a range of civic functions, could depose unpopular chiefs. In some removal ceremonies asafo members seized a chief and bumped his buttocks on the ground three times.
According to Ghanaian social anthropologist Maxwell Owusu, asafo companies
had a sacred duty to safeguard the interests of the wider local community against rulers or leaders who misused or abused their power.
The asafo remained active into the early colonial period. In the 1920s, however, the colonial administration curtailed their powers, to protect chiefs willing to implement colonial orders.
Echoes of asafo could still be heard many decades later. Following a succession of postcolonial administrations, Ghana erupted in widespread mobilisations against corruption and injustice. The popular outpourings of 1979 and the early 1980s were set off by two lower-rank coups led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. Recalling past traditions of resistance, protesters sang asafo war songs, beat drums, and employed other popular rituals.
Many of those activists regarded corruption not as a failing of individuals in high office, but as a problem rooted in Ghana’s class-divided society. As one leading figure of the new People’s Defence Committees put it in 1982:
Corruption … is the product of a social system and enriches a minority of the people whilst having the opposite effect on the majority.
Soon the Rawlings government moved towards accommodation with both western financial circles and domestic elites. The youth-led defence committees were purged and eventually abolished.
Radical social perspectives persisted into the era of multiparty electoral democracy, though not in the two mainstream parties. Both say they are opposed to corruption. But according to critics like political scientist Kwame Ninsin, they in effect take turns at the helm to “control the state for private accumulation”.
Most official anticorruption strategies tend to ignore political contention and social distinctions. And the standard international corruption ratings of Transparency International largely rely on external financial and investor assessments.
Afrobarometer research surveys provide a more comprehensive view. In 2019, for example, Afrobarometer interviewers asked Ghanaians whether corruption had worsened over the previous year. Some 67% of those living in greater poverty said it had, while only 47% of the better off thought so. And although poor respondents also cited misdeeds by high officials, they often stressed more tangible aspects in their daily lives, such as having to pay bribes to local police or to obtain health or education services.
Some corruption scholars see benefits to “frying big fish”, to publicly demonstrate their seriousness. Ghanaian governments have a long history of doing that, however, and face an increasingly sceptical public. To be more credible, anticorruption campaigns cannot target only the opposing party or just those at the heights of power.
Ghana now has a range of laws and institutions to combat graft, fraud and other injustices. Some focus on exposure and punishment, both through the regular courts and through institutions such as the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, which annually hears thousands of citizens’ complaints.
Some official actions stress prevention. High office-holders have to declare their families’ assets, to make it harder to hide illegal wealth. Mahama made his own declaration of assets public, the first president ever to do so.
Government anticorruption measures have improved over the years. But they still suffer from bureaucratic inertia and limited commitment. That’s why many activists argue against relying solely on politicians.
The effectiveness of any new initiatives by Mahama or other officials depends as much on action from below as from above. After all, it’s ordinary Ghanaians who know where corruption pinches them the most.
– Ghana’s poor are the ones who suffer most from corruption: history offers some ideas about fighting back
– https://theconversation.com/ghanas-poor-are-the-ones-who-suffer-most-from-corruption-history-offers-some-ideas-about-fighting-back-250821
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Sandiso Mnguni, Honorary Research Associate, University of the Witwatersrand
Thrips are tiny insects – their sizes range between 0.5mm and 15mm in length and many are shorter than 5mm. But the damage they cause to crops is anything but small. A 2021 research paper found that in Indonesia “the damage to red chilli plants caused by thrips infestation ranges now from 20% to 80%”. In India, various thrips infestations in the late 2010s and early 2020s “damaged 40%-85% of chilli pepper crops in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana”.
In Africa, a number of thrips species feed on sugarcane and have been known to damage nearly 30% of the crop in a single hectare of a farm. High rates of destruction have been recorded in Tanzania and Uganda on onion and tomato crops.
Now it’s emerged that thrips are hardly new to the African continent and the southern hemisphere more broadly. South Africa’s first and only Black palaeoentomologist, Sandiso Mnguni, who studies fossil insects, recently described a fossil thrips from Orapa Diamond Mine in Botswana that’s more than 90 million years old. He discussed his unique fossil find with The Conversation Africa.
Thrips, also known as thunderflies, thunderbugs or thunderblights, are small, slender and fragile insects. They can be identified by their typically narrow, strap-like, fringed and feathery wings. Over time, they have also evolved distinctive asymmetrical rasping-sucking mouthparts consisting of a labrum, labium, maxillary stylets and left mandible. Most species use these to feed primarily on fungi. Some feed on plants and eat the tender parts of certain crops like sugarcane, tomatoes, pepper, onions, avocado, legumes and citrus fruits, focusing on the buds, flowers and young leaves.
This, along with their habit of accidentally distributing fungal spores while feeding or hunting, makes them destructive crop pests. They tend to feed as a group in large numbers, causing distinctive silver or bronze scarring on the surfaces of stems or leaves.
However, not all thrips are harmful. A small fraction of the 6,500 species that have already been described so far are pollinators of flowering plants; and a handful are predators or natural enemies of moths and other smaller animals such as mites.
This is the first time that a fossil thrips has been recorded anywhere in Africa – or the entire southern hemisphere.
The Orapa Diamond Mine in Botswana is one of the most important fossil deposits on the continent. It’s about 90 million years old, dating back to the Cretaceous period.
Read more: Fossil beetles found in a Botswana diamond mine help us to reconstruct the distant past
The deposit is situated 960 metres above sea level in the Kalahari Desert, about 250km due west of Francistown in Botswana, and 824km away from Johannesburg in South Africa. It was first discovered in 1967 and started producing carat diamonds in 1971.
Roughly 90 million years go, steam and gas caused a double eruption of diamondiferous kimberlites. These are vertical, deep-source volcanic pipes that form when magma rapidly rises from the Earth’s mantle, carrying diamonds and other minerals up to the surface. They create a distinctive rock formation that gets studied by geologists. This explosive volcanic eruption formed a deep crater lake at the centre of the mine.
Mining excavations during the 1980s and earlier uncovered and exposed fine-grained sedimentary rocks containing well preserved fossil plants and insects. These have already been studied by many researchers in the past. At the time, geology and palaeontology researchers from what was then the Bernard Price Institute, which has since been renamed the Evolutionary Studies Institute, at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, were invited to collect the fossil material.
Although some of the material has been studied in the past, the fossil thrips hadn’t yet been put under the microscope. And that’s just what we did. By using its body characteristics and comparing it to living thrips, we can say for sure that it’s a thrips. But we didn’t give it a formal scientific name because it doesn’t have enough characteristics to classify it at the species level and describe it either as a new species or one that still exists today.
We think that the thrips either flew into the palaeolake that was formed by the volcanic eruption or was transported there through grass from a bird’s nest.
This discovery sheds light on the biodiversity and biogeography of thrips and many other groups of insects during a time when we know flowering plants that heavily relied on insect pollination were rapidly diversifying. This plant-insect reciprocal interaction goes back to the Devonian period, a time when there was a large super-continent called Gondwana. That’s when the first land plants evolved and dominated the Earth, and inadvertently led to many groups of insects, including thrips, diversifying to keep up with drastic changes in their preferred plant diets and habitats due to the dramatic environmental and climatic changes.
Read more: Fossil insects help to reconstruct the past: how I ended up studying them (and you can too)
The fossil find also contributes to a more accurate documentation of life on Earth during the Cretaceous and helps scientists in reconstructing the past environment and climate in Botswana.
Hopefully there are more fossil insects waiting to be discovered in Botswana and elsewhere in Africa, to keep improving our picture of this long-ago world, and preserve the heritage of our continent.
– The first fossil thrips in Africa: this tiny insect pest met its end in a volcanic lake 90 million years ago
– https://theconversation.com/the-first-fossil-thrips-in-africa-this-tiny-insect-pest-met-its-end-in-a-volcanic-lake-90-million-years-ago-249077
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ernest Harsch, Researcher, Institute of African Studies, Columbia University, Columbia University
It didn’t take long for the new government of John Mahama in Ghana to find a dramatic way to highlight its commitment to combating corruption. On 12 February 2025 his special prosecutor declared the previous finance minister a “wanted fugitive” for going abroad to evade questioning for suspected financial irregularities, before later agreeing to schedule a return.
In that one move, the government of Mahama’s National Democratic Congress sounded a couple of familiar notes from past campaigns. First, that the widespread graft so many Ghanaians bemoan was largely the fault of the other party, in this case the New Patriotic Party, voted out the previous December. And second, that dishonesty and misconduct are most damaging when they involve high public officials.
The reality of corruption lived by ordinary Ghanaians is far more complicated than that. Across the past 30 years of electoral democracy, both parties have been tainted by scandal and malfeasance. And over the country’s much longer history, as I detail in a new book, Ghanaians have complained about a wide range of misdeeds by figures in both the public and private realms, in positions high and low.
Ordinary people have often challenged abuses, misdeeds and outright theft by the wealthy and powerful. They did so well before the territory’s indigenous societies were subjugated by Britain and incorporated into its Gold Coast colony.
Based on my research into corruption over Ghana’s centuries-long history, it’s clear to me that the effectiveness of any new initiatives depends as much on action from below as from above. Poor people feel the effects of corruption and exploitation more acutely than the better off. And if they are organised they can push the authorities to be more active in rooting out fraud and graft.
The strongest precolonial society was Asante, an empire that ruled over a wide area of what is today Ghana. At times, the excesses and injustices of Asante’s monarchs provoked turmoil, fuelled by anger among elites and ordinary people alike.
One, Kofi Kakari, was dethroned in 1874 after violating established norms by removing gold ornaments from a sacred mausoleum. His successor, Mensa Bonsu, prompted a popular insurgency and was finally overthrown in 1883 by an alliance of junior aristocrats and commoners.
Meanwhile, the coastal areas populated by Fante developed a more institutionalised method of ensuring chiefly accountability. Commoner-led defence groups, known locally as asafo, which performed a range of civic functions, could depose unpopular chiefs. In some removal ceremonies asafo members seized a chief and bumped his buttocks on the ground three times.
According to Ghanaian social anthropologist Maxwell Owusu, asafo companies
had a sacred duty to safeguard the interests of the wider local community against rulers or leaders who misused or abused their power.
The asafo remained active into the early colonial period. In the 1920s, however, the colonial administration curtailed their powers, to protect chiefs willing to implement colonial orders.
Echoes of asafo could still be heard many decades later. Following a succession of postcolonial administrations, Ghana erupted in widespread mobilisations against corruption and injustice. The popular outpourings of 1979 and the early 1980s were set off by two lower-rank coups led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. Recalling past traditions of resistance, protesters sang asafo war songs, beat drums, and employed other popular rituals.
Many of those activists regarded corruption not as a failing of individuals in high office, but as a problem rooted in Ghana’s class-divided society. As one leading figure of the new People’s Defence Committees put it in 1982:
Corruption … is the product of a social system and enriches a minority of the people whilst having the opposite effect on the majority.
Soon the Rawlings government moved towards accommodation with both western financial circles and domestic elites. The youth-led defence committees were purged and eventually abolished.
Radical social perspectives persisted into the era of multiparty electoral democracy, though not in the two mainstream parties. Both say they are opposed to corruption. But according to critics like political scientist Kwame Ninsin, they in effect take turns at the helm to “control the state for private accumulation”.
Most official anticorruption strategies tend to ignore political contention and social distinctions. And the standard international corruption ratings of Transparency International largely rely on external financial and investor assessments.
Afrobarometer research surveys provide a more comprehensive view. In 2019, for example, Afrobarometer interviewers asked Ghanaians whether corruption had worsened over the previous year. Some 67% of those living in greater poverty said it had, while only 47% of the better off thought so. And although poor respondents also cited misdeeds by high officials, they often stressed more tangible aspects in their daily lives, such as having to pay bribes to local police or to obtain health or education services.
Some corruption scholars see benefits to “frying big fish”, to publicly demonstrate their seriousness. Ghanaian governments have a long history of doing that, however, and face an increasingly sceptical public. To be more credible, anticorruption campaigns cannot target only the opposing party or just those at the heights of power.
Ghana now has a range of laws and institutions to combat graft, fraud and other injustices. Some focus on exposure and punishment, both through the regular courts and through institutions such as the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, which annually hears thousands of citizens’ complaints.
Some official actions stress prevention. High office-holders have to declare their families’ assets, to make it harder to hide illegal wealth. Mahama made his own declaration of assets public, the first president ever to do so.
Government anticorruption measures have improved over the years. But they still suffer from bureaucratic inertia and limited commitment. That’s why many activists argue against relying solely on politicians.
The effectiveness of any new initiatives by Mahama or other officials depends as much on action from below as from above. After all, it’s ordinary Ghanaians who know where corruption pinches them the most.
Ernest Harsch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
– ref. Ghana’s poor are the ones who suffer most from corruption: history offers some ideas about fighting back – https://theconversation.com/ghanas-poor-are-the-ones-who-suffer-most-from-corruption-history-offers-some-ideas-about-fighting-back-250821
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Sandiso Mnguni, Honorary Research Associate, University of the Witwatersrand
Thrips are tiny insects – their sizes range between 0.5mm and 15mm in length and many are shorter than 5mm. But the damage they cause to crops is anything but small. A 2021 research paper found that in Indonesia “the damage to red chilli plants caused by thrips infestation ranges now from 20% to 80%”. In India, various thrips infestations in the late 2010s and early 2020s “damaged 40%-85% of chilli pepper crops in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana”.
In Africa, a number of thrips species feed on sugarcane and have been known to damage nearly 30% of the crop in a single hectare of a farm. High rates of destruction have been recorded in Tanzania and Uganda on onion and tomato crops.
Now it’s emerged that thrips are hardly new to the African continent and the southern hemisphere more broadly. South Africa’s first and only Black palaeoentomologist, Sandiso Mnguni, who studies fossil insects, recently described a fossil thrips from Orapa Diamond Mine in Botswana that’s more than 90 million years old. He discussed his unique fossil find with The Conversation Africa.
Thrips, also known as thunderflies, thunderbugs or thunderblights, are small, slender and fragile insects. They can be identified by their typically narrow, strap-like, fringed and feathery wings. Over time, they have also evolved distinctive asymmetrical rasping-sucking mouthparts consisting of a labrum, labium, maxillary stylets and left mandible. Most species use these to feed primarily on fungi. Some feed on plants and eat the tender parts of certain crops like sugarcane, tomatoes, pepper, onions, avocado, legumes and citrus fruits, focusing on the buds, flowers and young leaves.
This, along with their habit of accidentally distributing fungal spores while feeding or hunting, makes them destructive crop pests. They tend to feed as a group in large numbers, causing distinctive silver or bronze scarring on the surfaces of stems or leaves.
However, not all thrips are harmful. A small fraction of the 6,500 species that have already been described so far are pollinators of flowering plants; and a handful are predators or natural enemies of moths and other smaller animals such as mites.
This is the first time that a fossil thrips has been recorded anywhere in Africa – or the entire southern hemisphere.
The Orapa Diamond Mine in Botswana is one of the most important fossil deposits on the continent. It’s about 90 million years old, dating back to the Cretaceous period.
Read more:
Fossil beetles found in a Botswana diamond mine help us to reconstruct the distant past
The deposit is situated 960 metres above sea level in the Kalahari Desert, about 250km due west of Francistown in Botswana, and 824km away from Johannesburg in South Africa. It was first discovered in 1967 and started producing carat diamonds in 1971.
Roughly 90 million years go, steam and gas caused a double eruption of diamondiferous kimberlites. These are vertical, deep-source volcanic pipes that form when magma rapidly rises from the Earth’s mantle, carrying diamonds and other minerals up to the surface. They create a distinctive rock formation that gets studied by geologists. This explosive volcanic eruption formed a deep crater lake at the centre of the mine.
Mining excavations during the 1980s and earlier uncovered and exposed fine-grained sedimentary rocks containing well preserved fossil plants and insects. These have already been studied by many researchers in the past. At the time, geology and palaeontology researchers from what was then the Bernard Price Institute, which has since been renamed the Evolutionary Studies Institute, at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, were invited to collect the fossil material.
Although some of the material has been studied in the past, the fossil thrips hadn’t yet been put under the microscope. And that’s just what we did. By using its body characteristics and comparing it to living thrips, we can say for sure that it’s a thrips. But we didn’t give it a formal scientific name because it doesn’t have enough characteristics to classify it at the species level and describe it either as a new species or one that still exists today.
We think that the thrips either flew into the palaeolake that was formed by the volcanic eruption or was transported there through grass from a bird’s nest.
This discovery sheds light on the biodiversity and biogeography of thrips and many other groups of insects during a time when we know flowering plants that heavily relied on insect pollination were rapidly diversifying. This plant-insect reciprocal interaction goes back to the Devonian period, a time when there was a large super-continent called Gondwana. That’s when the first land plants evolved and dominated the Earth, and inadvertently led to many groups of insects, including thrips, diversifying to keep up with drastic changes in their preferred plant diets and habitats due to the dramatic environmental and climatic changes.
Read more:
Fossil insects help to reconstruct the past: how I ended up studying them (and you can too)
The fossil find also contributes to a more accurate documentation of life on Earth during the Cretaceous and helps scientists in reconstructing the past environment and climate in Botswana.
Hopefully there are more fossil insects waiting to be discovered in Botswana and elsewhere in Africa, to keep improving our picture of this long-ago world, and preserve the heritage of our continent.
Sandiso Mnguni receives funding from the GENUS: DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (Grant 86073). He is affiliated with the Agricultural Research Council Plant Health and Protection (ARC-PHP) and the Sophumelela Youth Development Programme (SYDP).
– ref. The first fossil thrips in Africa: this tiny insect pest met its end in a volcanic lake 90 million years ago – https://theconversation.com/the-first-fossil-thrips-in-africa-this-tiny-insect-pest-met-its-end-in-a-volcanic-lake-90-million-years-ago-249077
Source: China State Council Information Office 3
Participants pose for a group photo after a forum during the 2024 Tsinghua International Conference on Art & Design Education (ICADE 2024) in Milan, Nov. 16, 2024. [Photo courtesy of AADTHU]
Tsinghua University ranked No. 1 in Asia and No. 14 globally for arts and design, and No. 2 in Asia and No. 3 worldwide for art history in the 15th edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, released on March 12 by global higher education analytics firm Quacquarelli Symonds.
Both disciplines are part of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University (AADTHU). Notably, the art and design discipline rose 10 places in the global rankings, while the art history climbed 2 places.
In its largest-ever subject rankings, Quacquarelli Symonds compared over 21,000 academic programs, taken by students at more than 1,700 universities across 100 countries and regions, spanning 55 subjects and five faculty areas. The Chinese mainland ranked third globally with 1,230 subjects listed, trailing only the United States and the United Kingdom.
According to AADTHU’s official website, the academy’s achievements are deeply rooted in its strong commitment to constructing an integrated interdisciplinary system and to pioneering internationalized education.
By leading the reform of global art education, AADTHU is crafting a new professional development blueprint with an open approach. It is deepening its strategy of integrating art and science, advancing the development of interdisciplinary talent, and fostering innovation in technology and design, cultivating professionals with expertise in both the sciences and humanities.
In 2024, the academy invited 44 professors from prestigious global institutions, alongside artists, designers and industry leaders, for short-term programs. These initiatives featured 30 lectures, eight courses and two workshops, drawing over 1,000 faculty and student participants. Beyond this, the academy hosted 42 distinguished international experts as keynote speakers at conferences it either organized or co-hosted.
Notable events from 2024 include an opening forum on the integration of art design and industry innovation in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) at Milan Academic Week in Milan, Italy, in January, as well as the 6th Art and Science International Symposium held in Beijing in March. Meanwhile, the 2024 Tsinghua International Conference on Art & Design Education (ICADE 2024), themed “New Dimensions: Imagination Beyond the Horizon,” and the exhibition “From the Seine to Guanghua Road: Modernization of Art Deco” were successfully held in Milan and Beijing, respectively, in November.
Further highlights from last year include the “Arts and Crafts Artworks Exhibition of AADTHU” held in Wakayama prefecture, Japan, and a special exhibition and international symposium on Dunhuang art research, which opened at the China-France Fashion Week in Paris, France. “Brilliance of Cooperation: The Olympic Art Exhibition of Tsinghua University” was also held in Lausanne, Switzerland, in October.
Additionally, Tsinghua University’s doctoral degree authorization points for the first-level disciplines of both art studies and design studies successfully passed an on-site evaluation in October by experts from peer higher education institutions. Earlier this year in January, the China Scientometrics and Bibliometrics Research Center of CNKI also named 11 faculty members from AADTHU as “2024 CNKI Highly Cited Scholars.” CNKI stands for China National Knowledge Infrastructure, a leading online academic database.
AADTHU offers a diverse range of disciplines across 10 departments, including textile and fashion design, ceramic design, visual communication design, environmental art design, industrial design, information art & design, painting, sculpture, arts and crafts, and art history. The academy also features specialized offices for research, international exchanges, and art galleries.
The academy’s website also showed in recent years, AADTHU has continued to enhance its international standards, strengthen global academic exchanges, and expand its influence in international art education. Its art and design discipline, among the earliest in China to grant master’s and doctoral degrees, consistently ranks first nationally, emphasizing interdisciplinary, innovative, and globally competent talent development. AADTHU’s Department of Art History has also ranked among the top in national evaluations, with over half of its graduates securing positions at universities, museums, and research institutions.
AADTHU pledges to use its expertise to support a global community with a shared future. Guided by the principle of “art for life, design for livelihood,” it is contributing to addressing rural revitalization, livelihood development and global issues, making art a force for progress and contributing Tsinghua’s wisdom to world civilization.
Source: China State Council Information Office 3
Cultural creative products of Chinese animated film Ne Zha 2 are pictured in a toy store in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, March 4, 2025. (Xinhua/Lu Youyi)
Chinese animated blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” has soared past Disney’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to claim the fifth spot on the all-time global box office charts, further solidifying its status as both a cultural and commercial phenomenon.
According to data from ticketing platform Maoyan as of Saturday, the film’s global earnings — including presales — have surpassed 15.019 billion yuan (about 2.09 billion U.S. dollars), a milestone reached just 45 days after its release during the Chinese New Year on Jan. 29.
This latest feat adds to an impressive list of records for the film, which became the first film to gross 1 billion U.S. dollars in a single market, the first non-Hollywood title to enter the billion-dollar club, and the highest-grossing animated movie of all time worldwide.
MILESTONE FOR CHINESE CINEMA
Directed by Yang Yu, known as Jiaozi, the sequel to 2019’s “Ne Zha” — which grossed 5 billion yuan and topped the Chinese box office that year — has redefined the ceiling for single-film earnings in Chinese cinema. Over 98 percent of its revenue has come from the Chinese mainland, according to Maoyan data.
“This success has not only boosted the confidence of creators but also showcased the resilience and immense growth potential of the Chinese market,” said Lai Li, a Maoyan analyst.
The film’s roots run deep in Chinese mythology, continuing the story of the boy god Nezha as he and his ally Aobing struggle to rebuild their physical forms. With the help of the immortal Taiyi Zhenren, they navigate a journey of self-discovery, fate and defiance.
The story’s rich mythology, dazzling animation and universal themes have struck a chord with audiences. “‘Ne Zha 2’ is a miracle and a peak in Chinese cinema, a record that may remain unbroken for a long time,” said Chen Xuguang, director of the Institute of Film, Television and Theatre at Peking University.
EXPANDING GLOBAL REACH WITH ACCLAIM
The film’s technical achievements are just as remarkable. With nearly 2,000 visual effects shots and contributions from 138 animation studios, “Ne Zha 2” exemplifies the growing strength of China’s creative industry.
Since its international rollout began on Feb. 13 in Australia and New Zealand, “Ne Zha 2” has steadily expanded its global footprint. It opened in North America the following day, shattering the region’s 20-year-old opening weekend record for a Chinese-language film.
Sheila Sofian, a professor at the University of Southern California and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, praised the film’s production design, sound design, and music, calling it “mind-blowing” in a video interview shared by China Media Group.
After debuting in Singapore on March 6, “Ne Zha 2” launched this week in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, with further Southeast Asian rollouts planned in the coming weeks.
Its European expansion is also underway. On Friday, the film held preview screenings in Britain and Ireland ahead of its official March 21 release in both countries, with further European rollouts to follow.
Cedric Behrel, managing director of Trinity CineAsia, which holds theatrical distribution rights for “Ne Zha 2” across 37 territories, including the UK, Ireland, Germany, France and Spain, described the film’s European launch as “unprecedented in scope.”
INDUSTRY-WIDE, CULTURAL IMPACT
“Ne Zha 2” has struck a deep emotional chord with audiences. One Maoyan user reflected on the film’s themes of prejudice and resilience, writing, “The line ‘prejudice in people’s hearts is like an unmovable mountain’ rings true… Even I, from a humble background, used to judge others based on their family background.”
Another viewer, a high school student preparing for China’s tough college entrance exams, found personal inspiration: “With 100 days left until the exam, ‘Ne Zha 2’ reminded me that my potential is limitless. If there’s no path ahead, I’ll carve one out myself!”
Largely driven by “Ne Zha 2,” China’s box office revenue during the 2025 Spring Festival holiday hit a record high, injecting much-needed optimism into the country’s film industry, which saw earnings fall by 23 percent in 2024 compared to 2023, and by 34 percent from the pre-pandemic peak in 2019.
Dong Wenxin, a film critic and manager of a cinema in Jinan, Shandong Province, emphasized the film’s industry-wide impact. “‘Ne Zha 2’ hasn’t drained the market but expanded it. More people are paying attention to theatrical releases and are willing to support quality content,” she told Xinhua. “We owe a lot to ‘Ne Zha 2’ — it’s proof that great commercial blockbusters can sustain a healthy market cycle.”
Beyond its domestic success, “Ne Zha 2” is poised to serve as a cultural bridge, offering global audiences a window into China’s rich mythology and traditions.
Yin Hong, vice chairman of the China Film Association and a professor at Tsinghua University, told Xinhua that the success of “Ne Zha 2” reflects the dynamism of China’s creative industries, the enduring appeal of its traditional culture, and the potential for Chinese stories to captivate audiences all over the world.
In a video interview, Jiaozi reflected on the personal journey the “Ne Zha” films have taken him on, revealing how the series has evolved from his own passion into a broad cultural phenomenon. “The first step was creating something I loved, and domestic audiences loved it too,” he said. “Over time, I’ve worked to improve it, to refine my craft. I believe that one day, new ideas, deeper meanings, and a new soul will emerge from it, and the whole world will be able to appreciate it.”
Source: Hong Kong Information Services
The beauty and mystery of the Moon have captivated the human imagination for millennia. Channelling that fascination into scientific discovery, China launched its lunar exploration programme in 2004.
Chang’E-8, part of the programme’s fourth phase, is scheduled to be launched around 2028 to lay the groundwork for the construction of a China-led international lunar research station.
The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) has been appointed by the China National Space Administration to lead an international collaboration project under Chang’E-8 and develop a multifunctional lunar surface robot for scientific exploration.
Multifunctional role
HKUST Space Science & Technology Institute Director Prof Yu Hongyu explained that the robot is equipped with dual robotic arms and is capable of deploying and installing instruments, collecting lunar surface samples and more.
After the Chang’E-8 probe lands, the robot will need to retrieve other probes or sensors from it and move them to their designated locations.
“Precise control of the robotic arms is a challenging task. The process requires avoiding collisions with other instruments and positional accuracy.”
The Moon’s extreme temperatures and lack of satellite navigation systems pose additional challenges, so the robot is designed to perceive the topography of the Moon, plan and change its paths accordingly.
“In response to the Moon’s low-gravity and harsh environmental conditions, we are developing a software to ensure that the robot can autonomously adapt its posture and functions based on the environmental changes,” Prof Yu added.
Another key feature of the robot is its ability to serve as a mobile charging station to charge various lunar surface equipment.
“In the future International Lunar Research Station, there will be several robots and instruments working collaboratively. They require a stable energy supply. Our robot, fitted with solar panels, can provide wireless charging capabilities,” Prof Yu elaborated.
Lunar linkup
To complete the international collaboration project, the Government has established the Hong Kong Space Robotics & Energy Centre under the InnoHK Research Clusters.
Led by HKUST, the centre brings together researchers from the local and mainland universities, the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology as well as the South African National Space Agency.
The Innovation & Technology Commission estimates that the centre will provide training for around 20 PhD students and employ over 70 researchers in related fields. It aims to build Hong Kong’s aerospace technology capabilities, driving innovation from concept, research, production, testing to system integration.
As aerospace technology is a multidisciplinary field, the centre will not only enhance Hong Kong’s aerospace research and engineering capabilities, but also generate industry impact for sectors such as engineering, microelectronics, artificial intelligence, computing and communications, promoting their development.
Strong support
Noting that Hong Kong has a solid foundation in basic research and development (R&D), Secretary for Innovation, Technology & Industry Prof Sun Dong said the Government strongly backs local universities and research institutions in conducting aerospace technology-related research and supporting the country to become the world’s leading spacefaring nation.
He noted that the centre will capitalise on Hong Kong’s distinct advantages under “one country, two systems”, enhancing the city’s R&D capabilities and international scientific reputation.
“In recent years, China has achieved remarkable accomplishments in the field of deep space exploration. The level of deep space exploration capability is an important indicator of a country’s scientific and technological strength.
“Through deeply engaging in national space missions and strengthening international scientific and technological co-operation, the centre will facilitate the transformation and application of cutting-edge technologies related to aerospace, significantly enhance Hong Kong’s global competitiveness in the aerospace field and propel its advancement as an international innovation and technology centre.”
Prof Sun also pointed out that the Government has started to establish the third InnoHK research cluster focusing on advanced manufacturing, materials, energy and sustainable development.
Source: NASA
Under the nighttime California sky, NASA’s EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:43 p.m. PDT on March 14.
Taking off from Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara, the EZIE mission’s trio of small satellites will fly in a pearls-on-a-string configuration approximately 260 to 370 miles above Earth’s surface to map the auroral electrojets, powerful electric currents that flow through our upper atmosphere in the polar regions where auroras glow in the sky.
At approximately 2 a.m. PDT on March 15, the EZIE satellites were successfully deployed. Within the next 10 days, the spacecraft will send signals to verify they are in good health and ready to embark on their 18-month mission.
“NASA has leaned into small missions that can provide compelling science while accepting more risk. EZIE represents excellent science being executed by an excellent team, and it is delivering exactly what NASA is looking for,” said Jared Leisner, program executive for EZIE at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The electrojets — and their visible counterparts, theauroras — are generated duringsolar storms when tremendous amounts of energy get transferred into Earth’s upper atmosphere from the solar wind. Each of the EZIE spacecraft will map the electrojets, advancing our understanding of the physics of how Earth interacts with its surrounding space. This understanding will apply not only to our own planet but also to any magnetized planet in our solar system and beyond. The mission will also help scientists create models for predicting space weather to mitigate its disruptive impacts on our society.
“It is truly incredible to see our spacecraft flying and making critical measurements, marking the start of an exciting new chapter for the EZIE mission,” said Nelli Mosavi-Hoyer, project manager for EZIE at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “I am very proud of the dedication and hard work of our team. This achievement is a testament to the team’s perseverance and expertise, and I look forward to the valuable insights EZIE will bring to our understanding of Earth’s electrojets and space weather.”
Instead of using propulsion to control their polar orbit, the spacecraft will actively use drag experienced while flying through the upper atmosphere to individually tune their spacing. Each successive spacecraft will fly over the same region 2 to 10 minutes after the former.
“Missions have studied these currents before, but typically either at the very large or very small scales,” said Larry Kepko, EZIE mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “EZIE will help us understand how these currents form and evolve, at scales we’ve never probed.”
The mission team is also working to distribute magnetometer kits called EZIE-Mag, which are available to teachers, students, and science enthusiasts who want to take their own measurements of the Earth-space electrical current system. EZIE-Mag data will be combined with EZIE measurements made from space to assemble a clear picture of this vast electrical current circuit.
The EZIE mission is funded by the Heliophysics Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA Goddard. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory leads the mission for NASA. Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, built the CubeSats, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built the Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram, which will map the electrojets, for each of the three satellites.
For the latest mission updates, follow NASA’s EZIE blog.
By Brett MolinaJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Source: NASA
Four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission launched at 7:03 p.m. EDT Friday from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a science expedition aboard the International Space Station.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. The spacecraft will dock autonomously to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at approximately 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 15. Shortly after docking, the crew will join Expedition 72/73 for a long-duration stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.
“Congratulations to our NASA and SpaceX teams on the 10th crew rotation mission under our commercial crew partnership. This milestone demonstrates NASA’s continued commitment to advancing American leadership in space and driving growth in our national space economy,” said NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro. “Through these missions, we are laying the foundation for future exploration, from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. Our international crew will contribute to innovative science research and technology development, delivering benefits to all humanity.”
During Dragon’s flight, SpaceX will monitor a series of automatic spacecraft maneuvers from its mission control center in Hawthorne, California. NASA will monitor space station operations throughout the flight from the Mission Control Center at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA’s live coverage resumes at 9:45 p.m., March 15, on NASA+ with rendezvous, docking, and hatching opening. After docking, the crew will change out of their spacesuits and prepare cargo for offload before opening the hatch between Dragon and the space station’s Harmony module around 1:05 a.m., Sunday, March 16. Once the new crew is aboard the orbital outpost, NASA will broadcast welcome remarks from Crew-10 and farewell remarks from the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 crew, beginning at about 1:40 a.m.
Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
The number of crew aboard the space station will increase to 11 for a short time as Crew-10 joins NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner. Following a brief handover period, Hague, Williams, Wilmore, and Gorbunov will return to Earth no earlier than Wednesday, March 19.Ahead of Crew-9’s departure from station, mission teams will review weather conditions at the splashdown sites off the coast of Florida.
During their mission, Crew-10 is scheduled to conduct material flammability tests to contribute to future spacecraft and facility designs. The crew will engage with students worldwide via the ISS Ham Radio program and use the program’s existing hardware to test a backup lunar navigation solution. The astronauts also will serve as test subjects, with one crew member conducting an integrated study to better understand physiological and psychological changes to the human body to provide valuable insights for future deep space missions.
With this mission, NASA continues to maximize the use of the orbiting laboratory, where people have lived and worked continuously for more than 24 years, testing technologies, performing science, and developing the skills needed to operate future commercial destinations in low Earth orbit and explore farther from our home planet. Research conducted at the space station benefits people on Earth and paves the way for future long-duration missions to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis campaign and beyond.
More about Crew-10McClain is the commander of Crew-10 and is making her second trip to the orbital outpost since her selection as an astronaut in 2013. She will serve as a flight engineer during Expeditions 72/73 aboard the space station. Follow McClain on X.
Ayers is the pilot of Crew-10 and is flying her first mission. Selected as an astronaut in 2021, Ayers will serve as a flight engineer during Expeditions 72/73. Follow Ayers on X and Instagram.
Onishi is a mission specialist for Crew-10 and is making his second flight to the space station. He will serve as a flight engineer during Expeditions 72/73. Follow Onishi on X.
Peskov is a mission specialist for Crew-10 and is making his first flight to the space station. Peskov will serve as a flight engineer during Expeditions 72/73.
Learn more about NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission and the agency’s Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
-end-
Josh Finch / Jimi RussellHeadquarters, Washington202-358-1100joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Steven Siceloff / Stephanie PlucinskyKennedy Space Center, Florida321-867-2468steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov
Kenna Pell / Sandra JonesJohnson Space Center, Houston281-483-5111kenna.m.pell@nasa.gov / sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
Source: NASA
Written by Ashley Stroupe, Mission Operations Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Earth planning date: Wednesday, March 12, 2025
The days are getting shorter and colder for Curiosity as we head into winter. So our rover is sleeping in a bit before waking up to a busy plan. Today I served as the Engineering Uplink Lead, managing the engineering side of the plan to support all the science activities.
We are seeing a lot of rocks with different, interesting textures, so Curiosity’s day begins with a lot of targeted imaging of this interesting area. The two rocks right in front of us (see image above) are different from anything that we have looked at before on the mission, so we are eager to know what they are. We are taking Mastcam images of “Manzana Creek” and “Palo Comado,” two of these interestingly textured rocks, and also of an area named “Vincent Gap,” where the rover disturbed some bedrock and exposed some regolith by driving over it in the prior plan. ChemCam is making a LIBS observation of a target called “Sturtevant Falls,” which is a nodule on the left-hand block in our workspace (on which we are later doing some contact science). ChemCam is also taking a long-distance RMI image in the direction of the potential boxworks formation (large veins), which is an area we will be exploring close-up in the future. There are also a Navcam dust devil movie and suprahorzion movie. Check out this article from November for more information on the boxwork formations.
After a nap, Curiosity wakes up to get in her arm exercise. I do not envy the Arm Rover Planner today (OK, maybe a little bit) in dealing with this very challenging workspace. The rock of interest (the left-hand rock in the above image) has jagged, vertical surfaces and a lot of crazy rough texture. Examining this rock is even more challenging because our primary targets are on the left side of the rock, rather than the side that is facing the rover. We are looking at two different targets, “Stunt Ranch,” which is a nodule on the rock, and “Pacifico Mountain,” which is the left-side face of the rock, with MAHLI and also doing a long APXS integration on Stunt Ranch. After the arm work, Curiosity is tucking herself in for the night by stowing the arm.
The next morning, after again getting to sleep in a bit, Curiosity will make some more targeted observations, starting with another dust-devil survey. ChemCam will make a LIBS observation of “Switzer Falls,” which is a target on the right-hand rock in the workspace (and in the image), an RMI of “Colby Canyon,” a soft sediment deformation, and “Gould,” which is another target on the boxworks formation. Lastly, Mastcam takes a look at “Potrero John,” yet another interestingly textured rock.
Curiosity will then be ready to drive away. Today’s drive is on slightly better terrain that we have been seeing recently, with fewer large and pointy rocks. Though, the mobility rover planners still have to be careful about picking the safest path through. We’re heading about 25 meters (about 82 feet) to another rock target named “Humber Park,” where we hope to do additional contact science. After the drive, we have our standard set of post-drive imaging, a Mastcam solar tau, and then an early-morning Navcam cloud observation.
Source: NASA
An engineer applies scientific principles to design, build, and test machines, systems, or structures to meet specific needs. They follow the steps of the engineering design process to ensure their designs work as planned while meeting a variety of requirements, including size, weight, safety, and cost.
NASA hires several types of engineers to help tackle a range of missions. Whether it’s creating quieter supersonic aircraft, building powerful space telescopes to study the cosmos, or developing spacecraft to take humanity to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, NASA pushes the boundaries of engineering, giving us greater knowledge of our universe and a better quality of life here on Earth.
Aerospace engineer: Applies engineering principles to design hardware and software specific to flight systems for use in Earth’s atmosphere or in space.
Chemical engineer: Uses chemistry to conduct research or develop new materials.
Civil engineer: Designs human-made structures, such as launch pads, test stands, or a future lunar base.
Electrical engineer: Specializes in the design and testing of electronics such as computers, motors, and navigation systems.
Mechanical engineer: Designs and tests mechanical equipment and systems, such as rocket engines, aircraft frames, and astronaut tools.
High school is the perfect time to build a solid foundation of science and math skills through challenging academic courses as well as extracurricular activities, such as science clubs, robotics teams, or STEM camps in your area. You can also start researching what type of engineering is right for you, what colleges offer those engineering programs, and what you need to do to apply to those colleges.
Engineering roles typically require at least a bachelor’s degree.
Looking for some engineering experiences you can try right away? NASA STEM offers hands-on activities for a variety of ages and skill levels. Engineering includes iteration – repeating something and making changes in an effort to learn more and improve the process or the design. When you try these activities, make a small change each time you repeat the process, and see whether your design improves.
NASA’s student challenges and competitions give teams the opportunity to gain authentic experience by taking on some of the technological challenges of spaceflight and aviation.
NASA also offers paid internships for U.S. citizens aged 16 and up. Interns work on real projects with the guidance of a NASA mentor. Internship sessions are held each year in spring, summer, and fall; visit NASA’s Internships website to learn about important deadlines and current opportunities.
“A lot of people think that just because they are more artistic or more creative, that they’re not cut out for STEM fields. But in all honesty, engineers and scientists have to be creative and have to be somewhat artistic to be able to come up with new ideas and see how they can solve the problems in the world around them.” – Sam Zauber, wind tunnel test engineer
Heather Oravec
Aerospace and Geotechnical Research Engineer
“Joining clubs and participating in activities that pique your interests is a great way to develop soft skills – like leadership, communication, and the ability to work with others – which will prepare you for future career opportunities.” – Estela Buchmann, navigation, guidance, and control systems engineer
